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arXiv:cond-mat/0101254 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Equation of state for helium-4 from microphysics

Tim Gollisch, CHRISTOF WETTERICH

Published Mar 19, 2002• 11 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We compute the free energy of helium-4 near the lambda transition based on an exact renormalization-group equation. An approximate solution permits the determination of universal and nonuniversal thermodynamic properties starting from the microphysics of the two-particle interactions. The method does not suffer from infrared divergences. The critical chemical potential agrees with experiment. This supports a specific formulation of the functional integral that we have proposed recently. Our results for the equation of state reproduce the observed qualitative behavior. Despite certain quantitative shortcomings of our approximation, this demonstrates that ab initio calculations for collective phenomena become possible by modern renormalization-group methods.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.65.134506

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We compute the free energy of helium-4 near the lambda transition based on an exact renormalization-group equation. An approximate solution permits the determination of universal and nonuniversal thermodynamic properties starting from the microphysics of the two-particle interactions. The method does not suffer from infrared divergences. The critical chemical potential agrees with experiment. This supports a specific formulation of the functional integral that we have proposed recently. Our results for the equation of state reproduce the observed qualitative behavior. Despite certain quantitative shortcomings of our approximation, this demonstrates that ab initio calculations for collective phenomena become possible by modern renormalization-group methods.
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Thermodynamic properties of matter generally depend on the details of interactions between its constituent parts. However, in a unitary Fermi gas where the scattering length diverges, thermodynamics is determined through universal functions that depend only on the particle density and temperature. By using only the general form of the equation of state and the equation of force balance, we measured the local internal energy of the trapped gas as a function of these parameters. Other universal functions, such as those corresponding to the Helmholtz free energy, chemical potential, and entropy, were calculated through general thermodynamic relations. The critical parameters were also determined at the superfluid transition temperature. These results apply to all strongly interacting fermionic systems, including neutron stars and nuclear matter.
Thermodynamic properties of matter generally depend on the details of interactions between its constituent parts. However, in a unitary Fermi gas where the scattering length diverges, thermodynamics is determined through universal functions that depend only on the particle density and temperature. By using only the general form of the equation of state and the equation of force balance, we measured the local internal energy of the trapped gas as a function of these parameters. Other universal functions, such as those corresponding to the Helmholtz free energy, chemical potential, and entropy, were calculated through general thermodynamic relations. The critical parameters were also determined at the superfluid transition temperature. These results apply to all strongly interacting fermionic systems, including neutron stars and nuclear matter.
The dynamic renormalization-group flow equations for model F of Halperin, Hohenberg, and Siggia [Phys. Rev. B 13, 1299 (1976)] are calculated by means of renormalized field theory within the minimal-renormalization scheme up to two-loop order. These equations are combined with the Borel-resummation results for the static renormalization-group functions computed by Schloms and Dohm. The corresponding static fixed point destabilizes the dynamic-scaling fixed point in two-loop order. The nonuniversal initial values of the static and dynamic flow equations are identified for the \ensuremath{\lambda} transition of 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He at various pressures. Predictions are made for the bulk thermal conductivity very close to ${\mathit{T}}_{\ensuremath{\lambda}}$ where the departures from dynamic scaling should be observable. Effective static and dynamic parameters are computed that can be applied to other critical phenomena above and below the \ensuremath{\lambda} line of 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He.