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arXiv:cond-mat/9606099 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Magnus force in superfluids and superconductors

Edouard B Sonin

Published Jan 1, 1997• 225 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The forces on the vortex, transverse to its velocity, are considered. In addition to the superfluid Magnus force from the condensate (superfluid component), there are transverse forces from thermal quasiparticles and external fields violating the Galilean invariance. The forces between quasiparticles and the vortex originate from interference of quasiparticles with trajectories on the left and on the right from the vortex like similar forces for electrons interacting with the thin magnetic-flux tube (the Aharonov-Bohm effect). These forces are derived for phonons from the equations of superfluid hydrodynamics, and for BCS quasiparticles from the Bogolyubov--de Gennes equations. The effect of external fields breaking Galilean invariance is analyzed for vortices in the two-dimensional Josephson junction array. The symmetry analysis of the classical equations for the array shows that the total transverse force on the vortex vanishes. Therefore the Hall effect which is linear in the transverse force is absent also. This means that the Magnus force from the superfluid component exactly cancels with the transverse force from the external fields. The results of other approaches are also brought together for discussion.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.55.485

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The forces on the vortex, transverse to its velocity, are considered. In addition to the superfluid Magnus force from the condensate (superfluid component), there are transverse forces from thermal quasiparticles and external fields violating the Galilean invariance. The forces between quasiparticles and the vortex originate from interference of quasiparticles with trajectories on the left and on the right from the vortex like similar forces for electrons interacting with the thin magnetic-flux tube (the Aharonov-Bohm effect). These forces are derived for phonons from the equations of superfluid hydrodynamics, and for BCS quasiparticles from the Bogolyubov--de Gennes equations. The effect of external fields breaking Galilean invariance is analyzed for vortices in the two-dimensional Josephson junction array. The symmetry analysis of the classical equations for the array shows that the total transverse force on the vortex vanishes. Therefore the Hall effect which is linear in the transverse force is absent also. This means that the Magnus force from the superfluid component exactly cancels with the transverse force from the external fields. The results of other approaches are also brought together for discussion.
The paper derives the transverse forces (the Magnus and the Lorentz forces) in the lattice models of superfluids in the continuous approximation. The continuous approximation restores translational invariance absent in the original lattice model, but the theory is not Galilean invariant. As a result, calculation of the two transverse forces on the vortex, Magnus force and Lorentz force, requires the analysis of two balances, for the true momentum of particles in the lattice (Magnus force) and for the quasimomentum (Lorentz force) known from the Bloch theory of particles in the periodic potential. While the developed theory yields the same Lorentz force, which was well known before, a new general expression for the Magnus force was obtained. The theory demonstrates how a small Magnus force emerges in the Josephson-junction array if the particle-hole symmetry is broken. The continuous approximation for the Bose-Hubbard model close to the superfluid-insulator transition was developed, which was used for calculation of the Magnus force. The theory shows that there is an area in the phase diagram for the Bose-Hubbard model, where the Magnus force has an inverse sign with respect to that which is expected from the sign of velocity circulation.
The transverse force acting on a quantized vortex in a superfluid is a problem that has eluded a complete understanding for more than three decades. In this Letter I calculate the superfluid velocity part of the transverse force in a way closely related to Laughlin's argument for the quantization of conductance in the quantum Hall effect. A combination of this result, the vortex velocity part of the transverse force found by Thouless, Ao, and Niu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3758 (1996)], and Galilean invariance shows that there cannot be a transverse force proportional to the normal fluid velocity.
Starting from the time-dependent version of the Feynman-Hellmann theorem, the Magnus force acting on a vortex in fermion superfluid is expressed via the adiabatic curvature over the space of vortex positions. With use of the Bogoliubov--de Gennes approximation, the Magnus force in a homogeneous superfluid at T=0 is shown to originate from virtual transitions between the lowest quasiparticle core bound states. Nonadiabatic corrections to the curvature are obtained to second order in vortex velocity. The adiabatic approximation is shown to break down at a critical velocity equal to the vortex velocity in the first Landau level. The effect of elastic scattering on the Magnus force is discussed in terms of the relaxation-time approximation. It is suggested that this approximation is appropriate only for a large-scale vortex motion. In this case, the effective Magnus force is drastically reduced when the elastic-scattering rate exceeds the core excitation frequency. We conjecture that quantum vortex tunneling is governed by a local Magnus force obtained from the Berry phase approach.
Motion of vortices in two-dimensional superfluids in the classical limit is studied by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation numerically on a uniform lattice. We find that, in the presence of a superflow directed along one of the main lattice periods, vortices move with the superflow on fine lattices but perpendicular to it on coarse ones. We interpret this result as a transition from the full Magnus force in a Galilean-invariant limit to vanishing effective Magnus force in a discrete system, in agreement with the existing experiments on vortex motion in Josephson junction arrays.
The paper reassesses the old but still controversial problem of the transverse force on a vortex and the vortex mass. The transverse force from free bulk quasiparticles on the vortex, both in the Bose and the Fermi liquids, originates from the Aharonov-Bohm effect. However, in the Fermi liquid, one should take into account peculiarities of the Aharonov-Bohm effect for BCS quasiparticles described by two-component spinor wave functions. There is no connection between the transverse force (either from free bulk quasiparticles or from vortex-core bound quasiparticles) and the spectral flow in the vortex core in superfluid Fermi liquid, in contrast to widely known claims. In fact, there is no steady spectral flow in the core of the moving vortex, and the analogy with the Andreev bound states in the superconductor--normal-metal--superconductor junction, where the spectral flow is really possible, is not valid in this respect. The role of the backflow on the vortex mass is clarified. The backflow is an inevitable consequence of a mismatch between the currents inside and outside the vortex core and restores the conservation of the particle number (charge) violated by this mismatch. In the Fermi liquid, the backflow compensates the current through the core bound states, which is a source of the vortex mass (the Kopnin mass). This results in renormalization of the Kopnin vortex mass by a numerical factor.
The nondissipative transverse force acting on one moving vortex under the influence of another vortex is discussed in fermionic superfluid systems, where the relative velocity between the vortices is finite. On the basis of detailed numerical solutions of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation, the Berry phase for an adiabatic motion of the vortex line is examined for a two-vortex system. It is found that the detailed electronic structure of a vortex core can affect the transverse force, without abandoning the previous discussions of the robust Magnus force on a single vortex.