We present path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) calculations of the superfluid fraction, ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}/\ensuremath{\rho}$, and the one-body density matrix (OBDM) [Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC)] of liquid
4He confined in nanopores. Liquid
4He in nanopores represents a dense Bose liquid at reduced dimension and in disorder. The goal is to determine the effective dimensions of the liquid in the pores. It is to test whether observed properties, such as a very low onset temperature for superflow,
Tc, can be predicted by a standard, static PIMC ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}/\ensuremath{\rho}$. We simulate a cylinder of liquid of diameter
dL surrounded by 5 \AA{} of inert solid
4He in a nanopore of diameter
d;
d=dL+10A˚. We find a PIMC ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}(T)/\ensuremath{\rho}$ and OBDM that scales as a 1D fluid Luttinger liquid at extremely small liquid pore diameters only,
dL=6A˚. At this
dL, the liquid fills the pore in a 1D line at the center of the pore and there is no PIMC superflow. In the range $8\ensuremath{\le}{d}_{L}\ensuremath{\le}22\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\AA{}$ the PIMC ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}(T)/\ensuremath{\rho}$ scales as a 2D liquid. In this
dL range the liquid fills the pores in 2D-like cylindrical layers. The crossover from no superflow at
d=16A˚ to superflow at $d\ensuremath{\ge}18\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\AA{}$ agrees with experiment. There is a crossover to 3D scaling at larger ${d}_{L}\ensuremath{\simeq}22\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\AA{}$. In the range $8\ensuremath{\le}{d}_{L}\ensuremath{\le}22\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\AA{}$, the
Tc predicted using the Kosterlitz-Thouless 2D scaling criterion of the OBDM agrees well with that obtained from ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{S}(T)/\ensuremath{\rho}$. These results suggest that the superflow observed in small pore media is standard static superflow with the low
Tc arising from its 2D character. An operational onset temperature,
TBEC, for BEC can be defined as the temperature at which there is a crossover from exponential to algebraic decay in the OBDM. This definition leads to a ${T}_{\mathrm{BEC}}\ensuremath{\ge}{T}_{c}$ as observed in larger pore media.
Below Tλ = 2.17 K, bulk 4He is a superfluid and has a non-zero Bose-Einstein condensate fraction. This work will focus primarily on how phenomena such as superfluidity, Bose condensation and superfluid vortices are manifested in microscopic, inhomogeneous helium systems. Path Integral Monte Carlo is a powerful method for calculating the equilibrium properties of quantum systems at finite temperature. We have achieved linear scaling of computer time with number of particles through the use of neighbor lists, allowing us to simulate systems of several thousand atoms. We have derived a local superfluid estimator and used it to examine the microscopic superfluid response around a molecule rotating in a helium nanodroplet. We found that the first solvation layer is well-described by a two dimensional superfluid, with thermal excitations occuring at a lower temperature than in bulk helium. The effective moment of inertia of a linear impurity in a helium droplet is calculated, and compared with experimental scattering results. In addition, we calculated the vortex formation energy for both pure droplets and droplets doped with linear impurities, and found that the linear impurities had a negligible impact on the formation energy. A possible spectroscopic signature of vortices in doped helium droplets was suggested. After deriving a local estimator, we calculated the condensate fraction throughout the free helium surface of a semi-infinite slab. These results, along with densitydensity correlation functions, were used to characterize the surface excitations and calculate the extent to which ripplons are present. In addition, the ripplon dispersion relation was calculated using imaginary-time correlation functions, and found to be lll in good agreement with experimental results. Finally, we have calculated the Dey be-Waller factor in solid helium for a range of temperatures and densities, and compared the scaling behavior with the predictions of harmonic theory. The first non-Gaussian contribution to the density distribution was calculated.
We present a path integral Monte Carlo study of the global superfluid fraction and local superfluid density in cylindrically symmetric reservoirs of liquid
4He separated by nanoaperture arrays. The superfluid response to both translations along the axis of symmetry (longitudinal response) and rotations about the cylinder axis (transverse response) are computed, together with radial and axial density distributions that reveal the microscopic inhomogeneity arising from the combined effects of the confining external potential and the $^{4}\mathrm{He}{\ensuremath{-}}^{4}\text{He}$ interatomic potentials. We make a microscopic determination of the length scale of decay of superfluidity at the radial boundaries of the system by analyzing the local superfluid density distribution to extract a displacement length that quantifies the superfluid mass displacement away from the boundary. We find that the longitudinal superfluid response is reduced in reservoirs separated by a septum containing sufficiently small apertures compared to a cylinder with no intervening aperture array, for all temperatures below ${T}_{\ensuremath{\lambda}}$. For a single aperture in the septum, a significant drop in the longitudinal superfluid response is seen when the aperture diameter is made smaller than twice the empirical temperature-dependent
4He healing length, consistent with the formation of a weak link between the reservoirs. Increasing the diameter of a single aperture or the number of apertures in the array results in an increase of the superfluid density toward the expected bulk value.
We study the superfluid density of hard-core bosons on quasi-one-dimensional lattices using the quantum Monte Carlo method. Because of phase slippage, the superfluid density drops quickly to zero at finite temperatures with increasing the system length $\ensuremath{\ell}$ and the superfluid transition temperature is zero in one spatial dimension and also in quasi-one dimension in the limit of $\ensuremath{\ell}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$. We calculate the superfluid density of a model where no phase slippage is allowed and show that the superfluid density remains finite at finite temperatures even in the one-dimensional limit. We also discuss how finite superfluid density can be observed in a quasi-one-dimensional system using a torsional oscillator.
We report results of fully nonperturbative, path integral Monte Carlo calculations for dilute neutron matter. The neutron-neutron interaction in the
s channel is parameterized by the scattering length and the effective range. We calculate the energy and the chemical potential as a function of temperature at density $\ensuremath{\rho}=0.003 {\text{fm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The critical temperature
Tc for the superfluid-normal phase transition is estimated from the finite size scaling of the condensate fraction. At low temperatures we extract the spectral weight function $A(\mathbf{p},\ensuremath{\omega})$ from the imaginary time propagator using the methods of maximum entropy and singular value decomposition. We determine the quasiparticle spectrum, which can be accurately parameterized by three parameters: an effective mass
m∗, a mean-field potential
U, and a gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}$. Large values of $\ensuremath{\Delta}/{T}_{c}$ indicate that the system is not a BCS-type superfluid at low temperatures.
Several microscopic theories point out that Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), i.e., a macroscopic occupation of the lowest energy single particle state in many-boson systems, may appear also in quantum fluids and solids and that it is at the origin of the phenomenon of superfluidity. Nevertheless, the connection between BEC and superfluidity is still matter of debate, since the experimental evidences indicating a non zero condensate fraction in superfluid helium are only indirect. In the theoretical study of BEC in quantum fluids and solids, perturbative approaches are useless because of the strong correlations between the atoms, arising both from the interatomic potential and from the quantum nature of the system. Microscopic Quantum Monte Carlo simulations provide a reliable description of these systems. In particular, the Path Integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) method is very suitable for this purpose. This method is able to provide exact results for the properties of the quantum system, both at zero and finite temperature, only with the definition of the Hamiltonian and of the symmetry properties of the system, giving an easy picture for superfluidity and BEC in many-boson systems. In this thesis, we apply PIMC methods to the study of several quantum fluids and solids. We describe in detail all the features of PIMC, from the sampling methods to the estimators of the physical properties. We present also the most recent techniques, such as the high-order approximations for the thermal density matrix and the worm algorithm, used in PIMC to provide reliable simulations. We study the liquid phase of condensed 4He, providing unbiased estimations of the one-body density matrix g1(r). We analyze the model for g1(r) used to fit the experimental data, highlighting its merits and its faults. In particular we see that, even if it presents some difficulties in the description of the overall behavior of g1(r), it can provide an accurate estimation of the kinetic energy K and of the condensate fraction n0 of the system. Furthermore, we show that our results for n0 as a function of the pressure are in a good agreement with the most recent experimental results. The study of the solid phase of 4He is the most significant part of this thesis. The recent observation of non classical rotational inertia (NCRI) effects in solid helium has generated big interest in the study of an eventual supersolid phase, characterized at the same time by crystalline order and superfluidity. Nevertheless, until now it has been impossible to give a theoretical model able to describe all the experimental evidences. In this work, we perform PIMC simulations of 4He at high densities, according to different microscopic configurations of the atoms. In commensurate crystals we see that BEC does not appear, our model being able to reproduce the momentum distribution obtained form neutron scattering experiments. In a crystal with vacancies, we have been able to see a transition to a superfluid phase at temperatures in agreement with experimental results if the vacancy concentration is low enough. In amorphous solids, superfluid effects are enhanced but appear at temperatures higher than the experimental estimation for the transition temperature. Finally, we study also metastable disordered configurations in molecular para-hydrogen at low temperature. The aim of this study is to investigate if a Bose liquid other than helium can display superfluidity. Choosing accurately a ¿quantum liquid¿ initial configuration and the dimensions of the simulation box, we have been able to frustrate the formation of the crystal and to calculate the temperature dependence of the superfluid density, showing a transition to a superfluid phase at temperatures close to 1 K.