Abstract In this chapter we introduce some basic concepts of superfluid 4He that we will draw on in Chapters 8-12. Liquid 4 He has a long and rich history and there are many concepts that are implicit in the field today. We begin with a sketch of the unique mass and heat flow character of superfluid 4He. The assumptions of the two-fluid model used successfully to describe these properties are noted in §7.1. We introduce Bose-Einstein condensation in a Bose gas and the extension of this to interacting superfluid 4 He in §7.2. This leads naturally to the one-body density matrix which is the intermediate scattering function in the impulse approximation,We introduce a number of basic properties such as the static structure factor, the pair correlation function, and the momentum distribution which can be calculated from first principles using Monte Carlo and path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) methods. We conclude by noting the two current descriptions of the characteristic excitation in superfluid 4He. The first is a density excitation, based on the Landau and Feynman view, with suitable modifications at higher Q to take account of correlations among atoms. In the second, the density excitation is separated into a part due to the excitation of single particles out of the condensate to states above the condensate and a part due to regular density excitations involving only states above the condensate. In the latter picture the condensate appears explicitly in S(Q, ω).
Abstract In this chapter we introduce some basic concepts of superfluid 4He that we will draw on in Chapters 8-12. Liquid 4 He has a long and rich history and there are many concepts that are implicit in the field today. We begin with a sketch of the unique mass and heat flow character of superfluid 4He. The assumptions of the two-fluid model used successfully to describe these properties are noted in §7.1. We introduce Bose-Einstein condensation in a Bose gas and the extension of this to interacting superfluid 4 He in §7.2. This leads naturally to the one-body density matrix which is the intermediate scattering function in the impulse approximation,We introduce a number of basic properties such as the static structure factor, the pair correlation function, and the momentum distribution which can be calculated from first principles using Monte Carlo and path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) methods. We conclude by noting the two current descriptions of the characteristic excitation in superfluid 4He. The first is a density excitation, based on the Landau and Feynman view, with suitable modifications at higher Q to take account of correlations among atoms. In the second, the density excitation is separated into a part due to the excitation of single particles out of the condensate to states above the condensate and a part due to regular density excitations involving only states above the condensate. In the latter picture the condensate appears explicitly in S(Q, ω).
Abstract In this chapter we outline the microscopic theory of an interacting Bose fluid. The aim is to provide a basis for a microscopic understanding of the excitations in superfluid and normal 4He discussed in the following chapters. The microscopic picture can be omitted on a first reading and referred to when desired.We assume that the reader is familiar with the theory of Bose-Einstein condensation in a Bose gas introduced in §7.2 and presented in many texts on statistical mechanics. In §7.2 we also discussed the generalization of Bose condensation to an interacting fluid by Penrose and Onsager (1956).Condensation was identified with macroscopic occupation of one of the eigenstates of the fluid and the appearance of an infinitely long tail in the one-body density matrix, denoted as off-diagonal long range order (ODLRO). For a homogeneous fluid it is natural to take momentum states as the eigenstates and to assume that the macroscopically occupied state is the state with momentum p = 0. In this case the criterion reduces to that for a gas but with a firm foundation.
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.
We present a brief overview of crucial historical stages in creation of superfluidity theory and of the current state of the microscopic theory of superfluid 4He. We pay special attention to the role of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in understanding of physical mechanisms of superfluidity and identification of quantum mechanical structure of 4He superfluid component below λ-point, in particular—the possibility that at least two types of condensates may appear and coexist simultaneously in superfluid 4He. In this context we discuss the properties of the binary mixtures of BECs and types of excitations, which may appear due to intercomponent interaction in such binary mixtures of condensates. We also discuss current status of investigations of persistent currents in toroidal optical traps and present an outlook of our recent findings on this subject.
The phenomena of superfluidity and superconductivity are intimately connected with the existence of a condensate, a macroscopically occupied quantum state. Such condensates occur in a variety of different physical systems, as described in Chapter 1. The foundation for the description of superfluidity is a picture of the system as being comprised of a condensate and elementary excitations. In Chapter 8 we have seen how physical properties such as the energy and the density of a Bose–Einstein condensed system may be expressed in terms of a contribution from the condensate, plus one from the elementary excitations, and in this chapter we shall consider further developments of this basic idea to other situations. As a first application, we determine the critical velocity for creation of an excitation in a homogeneous system (Sec. 10.1). Following that, we show how to express the momentum density in terms of the velocity of the condensate and the distribution function for excitations. This provides the basis for a two-component description, the two components being the condensate and the thermal excitations (Sec. 10.2). In the past, this framework has proved to be very effective in describing the properties of superfluids and superconductors, and in Sec. 10.3 we apply it to dynamical processes. To describe the state of a superfluid, one must specify the condensate velocity, in addition to the variables needed to characterize the state of an ordinary fluid. As a consequence, the collective behaviour of a superfluid is richer than that of an ordinary one. Collective modes are most simply examined when excitations collide frequently enough that they are in local thermodynamic equilibrium.
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.
In Chapter 3, we have shown how a Bose condensate leads to the single-particle Green's function G αβ ( Q , ω) appearing as a distinct component of the the dynamic structure factor S ( Q , ω). This feature is a direct consequence of (3.13) and is explicitly shown by the expression for S ( Q , ω) in (3.18). In the present chapter, we review the many-body diagrammatic analysis which specifies the precise relation between G αβ ( Q , ω) and S ( Q , ω) in a Bose-condensed fluid ( n 0 ≠ 0). The power of this “dielectric formalism” lies in showing that both functions mirror each other, as a result of the condensate-induced intermixing of single-particle and density excitations. At the same time, the formalism emphasizes the continuity of these excitations as the fluid passes through T λ, although these excitations have very temperature-dependent weights in G αβ ( Q , ω) and S ( Q , ω). While it is the poles of the single-particle Green's function which describe the elementary excitations, experimentally it is difficult to probe directly this field-fluctuation spectrum. In particular, it is only in a Bose-condensed fluid that one can obtain information about G αβ ( Q , ω) from inelastic neutron-scattering data on S ( Q , ω). In the absence of a condensate, there is little relation between the density-fluctuation modes and the single-particle excitations in a Bose fluid. After setting up the dielectric formalism in Section 5.1, the next two sections consider some model approximations at finite temperatures. These models are most appropriate to a dilute weakly interacting Bose gas (WIDBG), but we believe they also give crucial insight into various aspects of superfluid 4 He.