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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Renormalization-group calculation of superfluid density and helicity modulus

Miguel Calvo

Published Dec 1, 1981• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The field-theoretical renormalization-group techniques previously developed for the description of the mestastable phases of isotropic, homogeneous, $d$-dimensional systems, which (close to their critical temperature) can be described in terms of the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson functional integral with a two-component order parameter, and applied to obtain the scaling form of the helicity modulus, defined as a measure of the free-energy increment associated with a metastable, helical twisting of the order parameter. The general scaling form of this quantity is determined even in the presence of an external helical field, for arbitrary helix pitch and temperature. In the case of vanishing external field, this quantity represents the superfluid density and is a function of the temperature and the superfluid velocity (which corresponds to the inverse of the helix pitch). In the limit of small velocities this expression exhibits the well-known Josephson asymptotic form ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}\ensuremath{\sim}{({T}_{c}\ensuremath{-}T)}^{\ensuremath{\nu}(d\ensuremath{-}2)}={({T}_{c}\ensuremath{-}T)}^{2\ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\eta}}$. An explicit $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4\ensuremath{-}d$ expansion for the helicity modulus is presented in the case of arbitrary external field to the one-loop approximation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.24.6318

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We show that Josephson's relation, $\ensuremath{\upsilon}=2\ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\nu}=2\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{\nu}$, connecting the critical exponent $\ensuremath{\upsilon}$, describing the vanishing of the helicity modulus (superfluid density), to other thermodynamic and correlation exponents is an exact scaling law within the renormalization-group framework. We use the standard isotropic nnn-vector model with continuous spins; when d<4d<4d<4 hyperscaling presumably holds, and we have $\ensuremath{\upsilon}=(d\ensuremath{-}2)\ensuremath{\nu}$. Secondly, we derive the first two leading terms of the helicity modulus in an $\ensuremath{\epsilon}=4\ensuremath{-}d$ expansion; this allows second-order evaluation of universal amplitude ratios associated with the superfluid transition.
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We present a microscopic calculation of the local superfluid density for a Fermi gas with a spatially varying density profile. By imposing an infinitesimal twist on the phase of the order parameter and calculating the resulting strain energy perturbatively, we find the helicity modulus, which is directly tied to the density of the superfluid component. The superfluid density determines the moment of inertia and in a two-fluid description of the hydrodynamics it is fundamental in a calculation of the collective mode frequencies.
We review the progress made in dynamic bulk critical behaviour in equilibrium in the last 25 years since the review of Halperin and Hohenberg. We unify the presentation of the theoretical background by restricting ourselves to the field-theoretic renormalization group method. The main results obtained in the different universality classes are presented. This contains the critical dynamics near the gas–liquid transition in pure fluids (model H), the plait point and consolute point in mixtures (model H � ), the superfluid transition in 4 He (model F) and 4 He– 3 He mixtures (model F � ), the Curie point (model J) and Neel point (model G) in Heisenberg magnets and the superconducting transition. In comparison with experimental results, it became clear that in most cases one has to consider apart from the universal asymptotic critical behaviour also the non-universal effective behaviour. Either because it turned out to be inevitable due to a small dynamical transient exponent inhibiting the system to reach the asymptotics (e.g., at the superfluid transition) or because one is interested in the region further away from the phase transition like in pure fluids and mixtures at their gas–liquid or demixing transition. The calculation of the critical dynamics is adequate in most cases only in two-loop order. We review these results and present the solution to unreasonable features found for some models. Thus, we consider model C where relaxational and diffusive dynamics are coupled and the scaling properties and the limit to a purely relaxational model (model A) have not been understood. In general for models where the order parameter couples to other conserved densities time scale ratios between the kinetic coefficients of the order parameter and the conserved densities play an important role. Their fixed-point values and the approach to the fixed point are changed considerably in two-loop order compared to their values in one-loop order. These considerations are relevant for the explanation of the dynamical critical shape functions of systems such as superfluid helium (model F) and the isotropic antiferromagnet (model G). As far as possible, the comparison of results obtained by the renormalization group theory with numerical simulations has been made.