The discovery of superfluidity in liquid {sup 4}He below T{sub {lambda}} = 2.17 K, and its phenomenological characterization since then, has been one of the great success stories of condensed matter physics. The relation of superfluidity to the behavior of atoms was conjectured by F. London in 1938. Superfluidity is a manifestation of the Bose condensation of helium atoms, the extensive occupation of the zero momentum state. Ever since {sup 4}He has been the paradigm in the search for Bose condensates in other systems. At the Pune meeting scientists have heard exciting new evidence for Bose condensates of laser cooled alkali atoms in magnetic traps, of excitons in Cu{sub 2}O, and possibly pre-formed Cooper pairs of electrons in the high {Tc} perovskite superconductors. There remains the holy-grail of forming a Bose condensate in spin-polarized hydrogen. In the current excitement for new types of Bose condensates, and new phenomena such as atom lasers, it may be useful to recall the older story of the experimental verification of a relation between superfluidity and Bose condensation in {sup 4}He. This topic has been investigated over many years by neutron scattering experiments and quantum many-body theory. The authors goal is to illustrate the difficulties of establishing the existence of a Bose condensate in a strongly interacting system, even though its macroscopic effects are manifest. The author assumes readers have access to a review by Silver and Sokol which emphasizes the neutron scattering theory through 1990 and a review by Snow and Sokol of the deep inelastic neutron scattering (DINS) experiments through 1995.
The discovery of superfluidity in liquid {sup 4}He below T{sub {lambda}} = 2.17 K, and its phenomenological characterization since then, has been one of the great success stories of condensed matter physics. The relation of superfluidity to the behavior of atoms was conjectured by F. London in 1938. Superfluidity is a manifestation of the Bose condensation of helium atoms, the extensive occupation of the zero momentum state. Ever since {sup 4}He has been the paradigm in the search for Bose condensates in other systems. At the Pune meeting scientists have heard exciting new evidence for Bose condensates of laser cooled alkali atoms in magnetic traps, of excitons in Cu{sub 2}O, and possibly pre-formed Cooper pairs of electrons in the high {Tc} perovskite superconductors. There remains the holy-grail of forming a Bose condensate in spin-polarized hydrogen. In the current excitement for new types of Bose condensates, and new phenomena such as atom lasers, it may be useful to recall the older story of the experimental verification of a relation between superfluidity and Bose condensation in {sup 4}He. This topic has been investigated over many years by neutron scattering experiments and quantum many-body theory. The authors goal is to illustrate the difficulties of establishing the existence of a Bose condensate in a strongly interacting system, even though its macroscopic effects are manifest. The author assumes readers have access to a review by Silver and Sokol which emphasizes the neutron scattering theory through 1990 and a review by Snow and Sokol of the deep inelastic neutron scattering (DINS) experiments through 1995.
Motivated by recent experiments on alkali gases in atom traps, a largely pedagogical account is given of the implications of the existence of a single-particle Bose-Einstein condensate for the phenomenon of superfluidity. The first conclusion is that, for alkalis in traps at the lowest temperatures, Bose-Einstein condensation coexists with superfluidity. Both experimental evidence and basic microscopic theory are reviewed in this context, with superfluidity in finite systems, quantized vortices and the threshold for breakdown of superfluidity all being referred to. The contrast between liquid 4He below the λ point and the alkali atom gases is then emphasized. Both exhibit superfluidity, but the manifestations of a Bose-Einstein condensate are quite different. For the atomic vapours, near to 100% of the atoms are condensed at the lowest temperatures, whereas from (i) neutron scattering and (ii) computer simulations in liquid 4He present evidence is that 7% is the condensate fraction. This leads finally into a brief discussion of superfluidity without a condensate, with specific reference to the two-dimensional Bose Coulomb gas. The main conclusion is that Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity are distinct consequences of deeper topological properties of the many-body wavefunction.
Surprisingly, it was 30 years after the first liquefaction of (4)He in 1908 that the discovery that liquid (4)He is not just a 'cold' liquid was made. Below T = 2.18 K, it is a 'quantum' liquid which exhibits spectacular macroscopic quantum behaviour that can be seen with the naked eye. Since the observation of superfluidity in liquid (4)He is one of the greatest discoveries in modern physics, we present a day-to-day chronology of the tangled events which preceded the seminal discovery of zero viscosity in 1938 by Kapitza in Moscow and by Allen and Misener in Cambridge. On the theory side, London argued in 1938 that the microscopic basis for this new superfluid phase was the forgotten phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) first suggested by Einstein in 1925. In 1941, Landau developed a very successful theory of superfluid (4)He, but it was not anchored in a microscopic theory of interacting atoms. It took another 20 years for theorists to unify the two seemingly different theories of Landau and London. Experiments on trapped superfluid atomic gases since 1995 have shone new light on superfluid (4)He. In the mid-1930s, London had emphasized that superconductivity in metals and superfluidity in liquid (4)He were similar. Experiments on trapped two-component Fermi gases in the last five years have shown that a Bose condensate is indeed the basis of both of these superfluid phases. This confirms the now famous Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-BEC crossover scenario developed for superfluidity by Leggett and Nozières in the early 1980s but largely ignored until a few years ago. The study of superfluid (4)He will increasingly overlap with strongly interacting dilute quantum gases, perhaps opening up a new era of research on this most amazing liquid.
This book reports on the latest developments in the field of Superfluidity. The phenomenon has had a tremendous impact on the fundamental sciences as well as a host of technologies. It began with the discovery of superconductivity in mercury in 1911, which was ultimately described theoretically by the theory of Bardeen Cooper and Schriever (BCS) in 1957. The analogous phenomena, superfluidity, was discovered in helium in 1938 and tentatively explained shortly thereafter as arising from a Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) by London. But the importance of superfluidity, and the range of systems in which it occurs, has grown enormously. In addition to metals and the helium liquids the phenomena has now been observed for photons in cavities, excitons in semiconductors, magnons in certain materials, and cold gasses trapped in high vacuum. It very likely exist for neutrons in a neutron star and, possibly, in a conjectured quark state at their center. Even the Universe itself can be regarded as being in a kind of superfluid state. All these topics are discussed by experts in the respective subfields.
The paradoxes and disparities in the contemporary microscopic theory of superfluid helium (He–II) are discussed along with possible ways of resolving them by taking pair correlations of He4 atoms into consideration. It is shown that most paradoxes are associated with the commonly accepted initial assumption concerning the dominating role of single-particle Bose condensate (SPBC) in the quantum microstructure of the superfluid component ρs. The existence of intensive SPBC leads to a strong hybridization of the elementary excitation branches and to a common dispersion law for all boson branches, which is identified with the quasiparticle spectrum E(p) observed experimentally from slow neutron scattering in liquid helium. However, the stability of this spectrum during a transition through the λ-point and the large value of the gap in the vicinity of the “rotonic” minimum contradict both the Landau theoretical criterion of superfluidity and the small value of experimentally measured critical velocity. At the same time, a strong interaction between particles in the Bose liquid He4 strongly suppresses the SPBC which amounts to less than 1% of all He4 atoms and hence cannot be the main constituent of the superfluid component, unlike the case of a weakly nonideal Bose gas. Moreover, for a quite strong attraction between particles in a certain region of the momentum space, bound pairs of bosons can be formed in the superfluid Bose liquid, and a coherent pair condensate (CPC) analogous to the Cooper pair condensate in superconductors may appear. Such a strong CPC may completely suppress the weak SPBC. In this case, the one-particle spectrum ε(p) of elementary excitations does not hybridize with the collective (two-particle) spectrum and does not appear in the structure of the dynamic form factor S(p,ε), i.e., does not coincide with the spectrum measured from neutron scattering. The dispersion of one-particle spectrum is defined by the momentum dependence of the pair order parameter Ψ̃(p) and may have a minimum or a point of inflection at p≠0. This peculiarity in the one-particle spectrum of a Bose liquid with CPC but without SPBC vanishes together with Ψ̃(p) at the temperature Tc=Tλ of the phase transition from the superfluid to the normal state (unlike the rotonic minimum in the collective spectrum), while the corresponding critical velocity vc=min[ε(p)/p] vanishes at the λ-point in accordance with the Landau criterion and the experimental data. The assumption that the strong “Cooper-like” CPC is responsible for the quantum structure of the superfluid component ρs is confirmed indirectly by the successful application of the Justrow approximation (based on strong pair correlations) for describing the properties of liquid He4 and quantum liquid mixtures He3–4He on one hand, and by an anomalously large effective mass of He3 impurity atoms in He4, which is approximately equal to total mass of He3 and He4 atoms, thus pointing to the existence of helium atoms in superfluid liquid He–II. The value of the superfluid velocity circulation quantum in the Onsager–Feynman vortices in a Bose liquid with CPC but without SPBC is discussed as well as the critical velocities of superfluid He4 in ultrathin films and channels in which the creation and motion of quantum vortices are ruled out, and the quasiparticle spectrum undergoes dimensional quantization.
Liquid helium is the prototypical example of a superfluid – a liquid that flows without viscosity and transfers heat without a temperature gradient. These properties are intimately related to the Bose condensation that occurs in this strongly interacting liquid. Bose condensation is most directly observed in the single particle atomic momentum distribution, where the Bose condensate appears as a delta function singularity. In this article, we discuss the experimental techniques used to observe the condensate and the current status of measurments of the Bose condensate in liquid helium. Introduction Liquid helium ( 4 He) has fascinated physicists ever since Kammerlingh-Onnes liquified the last of the so called permanent gases in 1908. However, evidence of what is without doubt the most fascinating property of this unique liquid, superfluidity, was not reported until almost 25 years later [1]. The superfluid phase, where heat is transferred without a thermal gradient and mass flows without a driving pressure, is a macroscopic manifestation of microscopic quantum effects governing the behavior of atoms [2]. Bose–Einstein condensation was first proposed by London [3] as the microscopic explanation for these fascinating phenomena. Helium is unique among condensed atomic systems since the bulk properties of the liquid are dominated by quantum effects. The most important of these are the statistical effects that arise for identical particles. For bosons, such as 4 He atoms, there is no limitation on the number of particles that can occupy a single quantum state.
Abstract The book covers three main strands, Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC), superfluid and superconductivity. The subjects are developed in a way which gradually builds up the key concepts and the necessary mathematical machinery. The book begins with the simplest of the three topics, BEC, and first thoroughly reviews the basics of the Bose-Einstein ideal gas before going into the techniques of magnetic trapping and cooling of atoms and the discovery of BEC in dilute atomic gases. Superfluidity in helium-4 is more difficult to understand, because it is a strongly interacting quantum liquid. The book introduces the main physical phenomena of superfluidity, and how it follows from the key concept of macroscopic quantum coherence and off-diagonal long ranged order. The theory of superconductivity is developed in stages, starting with the simpler London and Ginzburg Landau theories and their main applications, before developing the mathematical concepts of a quantum coherent state and the Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer (BCS) theory. The final chapter deals with the more advanced topics, including superfluid helium-3 and evidence for unconventional Cooper pairing in exotic superconductors. No prior knowledge of quantum many-body theory is assumed, and the necessary mathematical concepts are introduced in a self-contained manner where needed.