Ground-state properties of a supersolid in RPA

We investigate the newly discovered supersolid phase by solving in random-phase approximation the anisotropic Heisenberg model of the hard-core boson ⁴He lattice at zero temperature. We include nearest and next-nearest neighbor interactions and calculate exactly all pair correlation functions in a cumulant decoupling scheme. We demonstrate the importance of vacancies and interstitials in the formation of the supersolid phase. The supersolid phase is characterised by strong quantum fluctuations which are taken into account rigorously. Furthermore we confirm that the superfluid to supersolid transition is triggered by a collapsing roton minimum however is stable against spontaneously induced superflow, i.e. vortex creation.     

Effective interactions in dilute mixtures of3He in4He

Nonlocal pseudopotentials which describe the effective interaction between³He quasiparticles, and between these quasiparticles and the background⁴He liquid, are obtained as a function of concentration and pressure by generalizing the Aldrich-Pines pseudopotentials for pure³He and⁴He to dilute mixtures. The hierarchy of physical effects which determine these pseudopotentials is established. Interaction-induced short-range correlations are the dominant physical feature; next in order of importance is the greater zero point motion associated with the replacement of a⁴He atom by a³He atom, while spin-induced Pauli principle correlations play a significantly smaller, albeit still important role. We find a consistent trend in the change of the effective direct quasiparticle interactions with increasing concentration, and show how the Aldrich-Pines pseudopotentials for pure³He quasiparticles represent a natural extension of our results for dilute mixtures. Our calculated nonlocal pseudopotential for³He quasiparticles is qualitatively similar to that proposed by Bardeen, Baym, and Pines; it changes sign at somewhat lower momentum transfers than the BBP result, varies little with concentration, and provides a physical basis for understanding the BBP result. The effective interaction between quasiparticles of parallel spin, here determined for the first time, is essentially repulsive in the very dilute limit; as the concentration increases, it becomes increasingly attractive at low momentum transfers, and resembles closely that between antiparallel spin quasiparticles at 5% concentration. The concentration-dependent transport properties calculated from these pseudopotentials (which involve only one phenomenological parameter) are in good agreement with experiment at saturated vapor pressure (SVP), 10 atm, and 20 atm. Maxima in the thermal conductivity and spin diffusion are predicted to occur at concetrations somewhat less than 4%. Because the effective quasiparticle interactions are somewhat more repulsive than those previously proposed, we find the transition of the³He quasiparticles to the superfluid state takes place at significantly lower temperatures than many previous estimates; our predicted maximum superfluid transition temperature is 2×10^–8 K (for a 0.6% mixture at 20 atm).     

Homogeneous He-He solid solutions in the pre-separation region

Temperature dependences of the pressure P(T) in homogeneous solid ³He-⁴He mixtures have been studied experimentally in the wide range of concentrations (35.0%, 62.0%, 68.3%, 74.1%, 75.0%, and 89.3% ³He) above and below the equilibrium phase separation temperature T_s. An anomalous behaviour of the pressure in the vicinity of T_s is found for all investigated samples. With decreasing temperature, as T_s is approached, the pressure increases instead of expected reduction due to decrease in the phonon contribution (P_ph∼T⁴). Such an increase in pressure continues in the metastable region below T_s until the mixture separates. Theoretical interpretation of the observed effects based on a rigorous thermodynamic approach is proposed. The found experimentally pressure behaviour can be described only with the consistent account for fluctuations in the impurity subsystem which near T_s dominates over phonon contribution into the pressure. The obtained theoretical results are in good quantitative agreement with the experimental data. Density fluctuations in the concentrated mixtures give rise to a spontaneous formation of impuriton nano-clusters containing several hundreds of atoms. The fluctuation can be rigorously interpreted as a nucleus of the second phase in the pre-separated homogeneous solid mixture. The estimated size of the fluctuation nano-clusters agrees with the corresponding value for second phase nuclei obtained from the Lifshits-Slesov phenomenological theory of homogeneous nucleation.     

A wide angle neutron spin filter system using polarized He

Polarized ³He neutron spin filters can operate over a wide neutron energy range and provide a large angular acceptance. A compact ³He neutron spin filter system has been developed for the Multi-Axis Crystal Spectrometer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research. Sealed ³He cells, polarized by spin-exchange optical pumping, are used as polarizer and analyzer. The polarization of the neutrons incident on the sample is inverted by flipping the polarization of the ³He gas in the polarizer, with only a small effect on the analyzer cells. The cell fabrication process, ³He spin flipper, and the holding magnetic field are discussed and we present the results of a first on-linetest.     

Research on glass cells for He neutron spin filters

Glass cells play an important role in polarized ³He neutron spin filters. To evaluate the scattering and absorption contribution from glass cells during neutron scattering experiments, we measured small-angle scattering and neutron transmission in GE180 and other glasses. The small-angle neutron scattering measurements revealed that the glasses used for ³He spin filters have acceptably lower scattering: dΣ(Q)/dΩ=4-7×10⁻⁴ cm⁻¹ at Q=0.03-0.12 Å⁻¹. The transmission measurement was performed at J-PARC. Neutron transmission of about 92% through empty GE180 cells was observed over a wide wavelength range 0.014-7.0 Å. To pursue the possibility of being a structural influence on ³He spin relaxation in GE180 glass cells, we performed precise X-ray diffraction measurement using synchrotron radiation at SPring-8. From these measurements, a structural difference was observed among GE180 glasses with different thermal treatments.     

Applications of He neutron spin filters at the NCNR

At the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR), we have applied ³He neutron spin filters (NSFs) to the instruments where ³He NSFs are advantageous, such as thermal triple-axis spectrometry, small-angle neutron scattering, and diffuse reflectometry. We present the status of our development and application of this method, including polarized gas production by spin-exchange optical pumping, magnetostatic cavities for storage of the polarized gas on the beam line, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based, on-line monitoring and reversal of the ³He polarization. We present the status of developing user-friendly interfaces incorporated into the instrument software to handle these ³He neutron spin filters while taking data and performing data analysis. Finally we discuss the status of development of a polarization capability on the multi-axis crystal spectrometer, which requires polarization analysis over a 220° angular range.     

Investigation of the electronic structure of Be2+He and Be+He,and static dipole polarisabilities of the helium atom

The potential energy and spectroscopic constants of the ground and many excited states of the Be⁺He van der Waals system have been investigated using a one-electron pseudo-potential approach, which is used to replace the effect of the Be²⁺ core and the electron-He interactions by effective potentials. Furthermore, the core–core interactions are incorporated. This permits the reduction of the number of active electrons of the Be⁺He van der Waals system to only one electron. Therefore, the potential energy of the ground state as well as the excited states is performed at the SCF level and considering the spin–orbit interaction. The core–core interaction for Be²⁺He ground state is included using accurate CCSD (T) calculations. Then, the spectroscopic properties of the Be⁺He electronic states are extracted and compared with the previous theoretical and experimental studies. This comparison has shown a very good agreement for the ground and the first excited states. Moreover, the transition dipole moment has been determined for a large and dense grid of internuclear distances including the spin orbit effect. In addition, a vibrational spacing analysis for the Be²⁺He and Be⁺He ground states is performed to extract the He atomic polarisability.     

Simple and inexpensive3He insert for an ac susceptometer

The design of a simple and inexpensive³He insert for the existing ac susceptometer is described. The system uses a home built mutual inductance bridge for the ac susceptibility measurements from 0·4 K to 300 K. Simple and inexpensive design with the top loading facility are the main features of this set up. The insert can also be used as a continuously³He operating refrigerator down to 0·5 K.     

Monte Carlo study of the triangular XY vector Blume-Emery-Griffiths model

The vectorial generalization of the Blume-Emery-Griffiths model, proposed by Berker and Nelson to describe the behavior of films of ³He-⁴He mixtures, is studied by Monte Carlo simulations on the triangular lattice. The temperature versus chemical potential plane phase diagram, for a biquadratic coupling constant equal to the bilinear coupling constant, presents a Berezinzkii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition line that ends in a first-order transition line at a critical end point. This first-order transition line, on the other hand, terminates at a single critical point. No tricritical point has been detected. The critical exponent η as a function of temperature is independent of the chemical potential.     

Critical velocities and two mechanisms of transition in superfluid liquid He

Two mechanisms of transition of the superfluid liquid ⁴He to quantum turbulence regimes are proposed for the case when the influence of the normal fluid on superfluid flow is suppressed by introducing superleaks at the ends of the capillary. Using dimensional analysis it is found that in the roton mechanism the critical velocity depends on channel size as vc∝d−1/4, matching the experiments. For the second, super-flow mechanism, the analysis of independent parameters relevant for this phenomena leads to critical velocity depending on d as vc∝d−1. It is shown that turbulence for super-flow mechanism arises when a “quantum Reynolds number” exceeds some critical value which is about 10³ for 1D geometry. The dimensional analysis of the equation for critical velocity of superfluid flow without superleaks at the ends of the capillary is also presented.     

Implantation and spectroscopy of metal atoms in solid helium

The first implantation of neutral Ba and Cs atoms into solid⁴He is reported. We discuss details of the experimental setup and techniques used to load the helium with atoms at concentrations of 10⁸ cm^–3. If photodissociation of Cs molecules and clusters is performed twice per hour this atomic concentration can be kept without a second implantation for almost a day. From the optical spectra of Ba in solid helium we infer no significant difference in the trapping site with respect to that in liquid helium.     

What makes a crystal supersolid?

For nearly half a century the supersolid phase of matter has remained mysterious, not only eluding experimental observation, but also generating a great deal of controversy among theorists. The recent discovery of what is interpreted as a non-classical moment of inertia at low temperature in solid ⁴He [E. Kim and M.H.W. Chan, Nature 427 225 (2004a); E. Kim and M.H.W. Chan, Science 305 1941 (2004b); E. Kim and M.H.W. Chan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 115302 (2006); A.C. Clark and M.H.W. Chan, J. Low Temp. Phys. 138 853 (2005)] has elicited much excitement as a possible first observation of a supersolid phase. In the two years following the discovery, however, more puzzles than answers have been provided to the fundamental issue of whether the supersolid phase exists, in helium or any other naturally occurring condensed matter system. Presently, there is no established theoretical framework to understand the body of experimental data on ⁴He. Different microscopic mechanisms that have been suggested to underlie superfluidity in a perfect quantum crystal do not seem viable for ⁴He, for which a wealth of experimental and theoretical evidence points to an insulating crystalline ground state. This perspective addresses some of the outstanding problems with the interpretation of recent experimental observations of the apparent superfluid response in ⁴He (seen now by several groups, e.g. A.S. Rittner and J.D. Reppy 2006; M. Kondo, S. Takada, Y. Shibayama and K. Shirahama, Proceedings of QFS2006, Kyoto, Submitted to J. Low Temp. Phys.; A. Penzyev, Y. Yasuta and M. Kubota, Proceedings of QFS2006, Kyoto, Submitted to J. Low Temp. Phys., cond-mat/0702632.) and discusses various scenarios alternative to the homogeneous supersolid phase, such as superfluidity induced by extended defects of the crystalline structure, including grain boundaries, dislocations and anisotropic stresses. Can a metastable superfluid ‘glassy’ phase exist, and can it be relevant to some of the experimental observations? One of the most interesting and unsolved fundamental questions is what interatomic potentials, given the freedom to design one, can support an ideal supersolid phase in continuous space, and can they be found in Nature.     

Possibility of<Superscript>5</Superscript>He emission in neutron induced reactions

The unstable nucleus⁵He emission has never been included in the widely used statistical model codes as the evaluation tool and interpretation experimental data. The calculated threshold energies of⁵He emission from light nuclei to heavy nuclei indicate that in most cases the compound nucleus induced by incident neutron would emit⁵He rather than³He. Since⁵He is unstable and can be separated into n+α spontaneously, so neutron is produced in⁵He emission process. The formulation of the double-differential cross section of the neutron from the two-body breakup process of emitted⁵He is established. Because of the strong recoil effect, the energy balance is strictly taken into account to meet the needs in nuclear engineering. Further improvement of the statistical model calculation codes on this respect is proposed. It is expected that the correlative measurement will be available to account the outgoing neutron and alpha particle simultaneously and to test and verify the existence of⁵He emission.     

Atomic 6p-Tl0 centers in ferroelectric Rb2ZnCl4 crystals

Abstract

Several Tl⁰ (6s²6p ¹)-type paramagnetic centers, produced by low temperature X-ray irradiation, were observed and studied by electron spin resonance (ESR) in the orthorhombic ferroelectric phase of thallium doped Rb₂ZnCl₄ crystals. The centers were formed by electron trapping at Tl⁺ ions localized substitutionally at Rb⁺ sites. The number and properties of the observed centers account for the tripling of the unit cell in the ferroelectric phase.     

Particle-hole calculations in4He and16O with centre of mass subtracted kinetic energy

It is found that in light nuclei it is very important to use a relative kinetic energy operator. This kinetic energy is mass number dependent and contributes in all odd parity (J*,T) channels. In particular it is seen to produce the spurious state exactly at zero energy in the (1⁻, 0) channel in TDA both in⁴He and¹⁶O. The effect of the relative KE is to decrease the central force attraction and increase the relative importance of the tensor force. The latter is important in RPA. Sussex matrix elements without the hard core are used.     

Instabilities of the Conventional Nucleus-Nucleus Interactions for (<Superscript>3</Superscript>H<Superscript>4</Superscript>He) Proton Pickup Cross-Sections

The angular distributions of the ²⁶Mg, ²⁸Si, ³⁰Si(³H, ⁴He) reactions have been analyzed using the exact finite-range DWBA calculations. The optical model potential is assumed to have the conventional spin-orbit potential. The obtained cross-sections with the spin-orbit potential are not significantly different from those calculated using the phenomenological Woods–Saxon form factors in the forward angle regions. The inclusion of the spin-orbit potential gives the best fit to the data and greatly improves the large angle cross-sections. Different reasonable spectroscopic factors are found to account well for the cross-section magnitudes.     

Solitons and their resonances on two-dimensional superfluid films

The dynamics of saturated two-dimensional superfluid⁴He films is shown to be governed by the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation with negative dispersion. It is established that the phenomena of soliton resonance could be observed in such films. Under the lowest order nonlinearity, such resonance would happen only if two dimensional effects are taken into account. The amplitude and velocity of the resonant soliton are obtained.     

He accumulation effect in solid and liquid D-T mixture

This article reports the accumulation effect of the ³He originating from tritium β decay; ³He created in solid remains in it, while one in liquid diffuses and goes out to the vapor gas. We observed this effect through the neutron detection from muon catalyzed fusion phenomenon (μCF), and gave it qualitative understanding, by which the muon transfer rate from (dμ) and (tμ) to helium was derived. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Development of a compact on-beam SEOP neutron spin filter

We have designed and demonstrated a prototype on-beam spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) ³He neutron spin filter (NSF). It is designed as the incident neutron polarizer for spallation neutron sources, where the installation space is limited due to thick radiation shielding. The size of the NSF is roughly 50 cm×50 cm×25 cm including the diode-laser optics with a frequency narrowing external cavity, and a cylindrical ³He cell as large as a diameter of 5 cm and a length of 10 cm can fit. A neutron beam test was performed at the NOP beamline of JRR-3 to see the performance of the NSF.