Probing "cosmological" defects in superfluid 3He-B with a vibrating-wire resonator

We report on the observation of an anomalously high damping measured by a vibrating-wire resonator (VWR) immersed into superfluid at ultralow temperatures. The observed dissipation is orders of magnitude above that corresponding to friction with the dilute normal fraction and superfluid vortices. A clear pinning behavior is also observed, as well as a strong magnetic field dependence. Our analysis points to the interaction of the VWR with a planar topological defect, analogue to cosmological vacua defects, as proposed by Salomaa and Volovik.     

The superfluid vacuum state,time-varying cosmological constant,and nonsingular cosmological models

Some cosmological consequences of the superfluid vacuum state developed previously by the authors are discussed, particularly with regard to the initial stages of the universe. The transition temperature of the hadronic superfluid (superfluid during the hadron era) is estimated to be 10 ¹³ K, which is the same as the Hagedorn temperature, giving a physical basis of the thermodynamic bootstrap model.     

Letter: Mach's Principle and Superfluids in Cosmology

It is argued that the cosmological principle of Mach and the possibility that the Universe acted as a superfluid at early times may provide an explanation for the properties of elementary particles.     

Meron and elliptic solutions in conformally flat space-time

The idea recently advanced by the author that particles arise as distortions of a riemannian background is pursued further. Such distortions represent conformally flat solutions of Einstein's “cosmological” equations extremely large “cosmological” constant. It is shown in particular that merons can be generated by perfect fluid or neutral superfluid distributions of energy and momentum. Perfect fluids can also generate elliptic plane waves of the type discussed by Petiau.     

Planck-mass-rotons cold dark matter hypothesis

Sakharov's conjecture that the vacuum is densely occupied with Planck-mass maximons is taken as a model to explain the missing mass as rotons of a superfluid made up from the Planck-mass maximons. Because rotons require a finite excitation energy, they not only can account for the missing mass but, in addition, can mimic a small, positive cosmological constant. According to Sakharov, the large vacuum energy of the Planck-mass maximons is compensated by ghost particles. In the proposed superfluid vacuum model, we assume that the compensation is done by a large, negative cosmological constant instead.     

Superfluidity versus Bloch oscillations in confined atomic gases

We study the superfluid properties of (quasi) one-dimensional bosonic atom gases/liquids in traps with finite geometries in the presence of strong quantum fluctuations. Driving the condensate with a moving defect we find the nucleation rate for phase slips using instanton techniques. While phase slips are quenched in a ring resulting in a superfluid response, they proliferate in a tube geometry where we find Bloch oscillations in the chemical potential. These Bloch oscillations describe the individual tunneling of atoms through the defect and thus are a consequence of particle quantization.     

Superfluidity and superconductivity in the universe

The paper aims to elucidate the current status of the problem concerning the existence and observation of superfluid and superconducting states in the universe, that is, under cosmic conditions. Following an introduction, the paper discusses Bose-Einstein condensation, superfluidity, and superconductivity; possibilities for the occurrence of superfluidity and superconductivity under cosmic conditions; superconductivity of dense, degenerate electron plasma (large planets, white dwarfs); superfluidity and superconductivity in neutron stars; and finally superfluidity in a cosmological neutrino “sea.”     

Localizing gravity on a stringlike defect in six dimensions

We present a metric solution in six dimensions, where gravity is localized on a four-dimensional singular stringlike defect. The corrections to four-dimensional gravity from the bulk continuum modes are suppressed by O(1/r(3)). No tuning of the bulk cosmological constant to the brane tension is required in order to cancel the four-dimensional cosmological constant.     

Optical studies of atoms and ions in superfluid helium using a ccd-camera system

The spectroscopic study ions and atoms immersed into liquid helium can contribute to the understanding of the structure of pointlike defects in helium and their interaction with the superfluid phase as well. Ions and atoms serve as microprobes in the form of so calledbubble orsnowball type defects in the quantum fluid. The optical emission of these structures is recorded. From the optical spectra of previous experiments the influence of the surrounding helium on the electronic configuration of the impurity atoms or ions was examined. In this experiment the light emitted from the defect atoms is observed by a camera. The pictures obtained yield information about the distribution and the motion of the defect particles in the superfluid. As an example the fluorescence light resulting from the recombination of magnesium, barium and thallium ions with excess electrons in superfluid helium was recorded.     

Lyra's Geometry and Cosmology: A Review

The Lyra's geometry, which is a generalization of Weyl's geometry (removing the defect of non-integrability of length transfer) and the gravitational theory and cosmology based on this geometry have been reviewed. Further, cosmological models with both constant and time dependent displacement field have been discussed. Some of these models solve the singularity, entropy and horizon problems. Finally some possibilities of further problems and their investigations have been pointed out.     

Cosmological constant: a lesson from the effective gravity of topological weyl media

Topological matter with Weyl points, such as superfluid ³He-A, provide an explicit example where there is a direct connection between the properly determined vacuum energy and the cosmological constant of the effective gravity emerging in condensed matter. This is in contrast to the acoustic gravity emerging in Bose-Einstein condensates (S. Finazzi, S. Liberati, and L. Sindoni, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 071101 (2012); arXiv:1103.4841). The advantage of topological matter is that the relativistic fermions and gauge bosons emerging near the Weyl point obey the same effective metric and thus the effective gravity is more closely related to real gravity. We study this connection in the bi-metric gravity emerging in ³He-A, and its relation to the graviton masses, by comparison with a fully relativistic bi-metric theory of gravity. This shows that the parameter ??, which in ³He-A is the bi-metric generalization of the cosmological constant, coincides with the difference in the proper energy of the vacuum in two states (the nonequilibrium state without gravity and the equilibrium state in which gravity emerges) and is on the order of the characteristic Planck energy scale of the system. Although the cosmological constant ?? is huge, the cosmological term T _??? ^?? itself is naturally non-constant and vanishes in the equilibrium vacuum, as dictated by thermodynamics. This suggests that the equilibrium state of any system including the final state of the Universe is not gravitating.     

超冷原子中拓扑超流的发展现状

拓扑超流态是一种奇异物质态,它的内部受能隙保护,而在其系统边缘却可以容纳无能隙的Majorana 费米子。由于该粒子满足非阿贝尔统计,并且受拓扑保护具有良好的稳定性,用它 们携带量子化的信息,可以用于拓扑量子计算的研究。近年来,理论工作预测了各类系统中可能 存在的拓扑超流态。我们首先介绍了在各类光晶格模型中的拓扑超流, 光晶格的超冷原子具有良 好的可控性与普适性,是实现拓扑超流的理想模型系统。接下来我们介绍了自旋轨道耦合调控下 的拓扑超流,自旋轨道耦合效应是诱导拓扑相的重要条件,并且人们已经在实验上合成了人工自 旋轨道耦合,这为实验上观测拓扑超流取得了突破性的进展。随着近年来实验技术的提高,曾经 难以在实验中观测的,被人们所忽略的拓扑Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) 超流相也 成为了人们研究的热点,因此我们接下来介绍了拓扑的FFLO 超流。此外,我们还介绍了拓扑超 流其他方面的进展,包括孤子引诱的拓扑超流、三组分的拓扑超流、大陈数的拓扑超流以及拓扑 超流临界温度的提高。在实验中,如何检测与实现拓扑超流,是其研究的目的及意义所在,因 此我们在文章的最后介绍了拓扑超流的识别与实现。     

Are pulsar glitches triggered by a superfluid two-stream instability?

Mature neutron stars are expected to have several superfluid components. Strong evidence for this is provided by the glitches that have been observed in dozens of pulsars. We describe a superfluid analog of the two-stream instability that is well known in plasma physics and provide arguments that this instability is likely to be relevant for neutron stars. This is a new physical mechanism which may play a key role in explaining the glitch mechanism and which could also prove to be relevant in laboratory experiments on various superfluid systems.     

Localising gravity in composite monopole brane worlds without bulk cosmological constant

We study a 7-dimensional brane world scenario with a Ricci-flat 3-brane residing in the core of a composite monopole defect, i.e., a defect composed of a 't Hooft–Polyakov and a global monopole. Admitting a direct interaction between the two bosonic sectors of the theory, we analyse the structure of the space–time in the limits of small, respectively large direct interaction coupling constant. For large direct interaction, the global monopole disappears from the system and leaves behind a negative cosmological constant in the bulk such that gravity-localising solutions are possible without a priori introduction of a bulk cosmological constant.     

On gravity localization under Lorentz violation in warped scenario

Recently Rizzo studied the Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) in a brane scenario with one extra dimension where he found a non-zero mass for the four-dimensional graviton. This leads to the conclusion that five-dimensional models with LIV are not phenomenologically viable. In this work we re-examine the issue of Lorentz Invariance Violation in the context of higher-dimensional theories. We show that a six-dimensional geometry describing a string-like defect with a bulk-dependent cosmological constant can yield a massless 4D graviton, if we allow the cosmological constant variation along the bulk, and thus can provides a phenomenologically viable solution for the gauge hierarchy problem.     

An Anisotropic Homogeneous Cosmological Model in a Modified Brans-Dicke Cosmology

Adding the cosmological term, which is assumed to be variable in Brans-Dicke theory we have discussed about a spatially homogeneous and anisotropic cosmological model corresponding to Bianchi type-I solution. The physical and geometrical properties of this model has been discussed. Finally this model has been transformed to the original form (1961) of Brans-Dicke theory (including a variable cosmological term).     

Bianchi Type-I Cosmological Model Filled with Viscous Fluid in a Modified Brans-Dicke Cosmology

Adding the cosmological term, which is assumed to be variable in Brans-Dicke theory we have discussed about a Bianchi type-I cosmological model filled with viscous fluid with free gravitational field of Petrov type-D. The effect of viscousity on various kinematical parameters has been discussed. Finally, this model has been transformed to the original form (1961) of Brans-Dicke theory including a variable cosmological term.     

Coherence properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical superlattice

We study the effect of a one dimensional optical superlattice on the superfluid properties (superfluid fraction, number squeezing, dynamic structure factor) and the quasi-momentum distribution of the Mott-insulator. We show that due to the secondary lattice, there is a decrease in the superfluid fraction and the number fluctuation. The dynamic structure factor which can be measured by Bragg spectroscopy is also suppressed due to the addition of the secondary lattice. The visibility of the interference pattern (the quasi-momentum distribution) of the Mott-insulator is found to decrease due to the presence of the secondary lattice. Our results have important implications in atom interferometry and quantum computation in optical lattices.     

Surface Andreev bound states of superfluid (3)He and Majorana fermions

Superfluid (3)He is an intensively investigated and well characterized p-wave superfluid. In the bulk Balian-Werthamer state, which is commonly called the (3)He B phase, the superfluid gap is opened isotropically but near a flat boundary such as a wall of a container it can harbor interesting quasi-particle states inside the gap. These states are called surface Andreev bound states, and have not been experimentally explored in detail. Transverse acoustic impedance measurement has revealed their existence and provided spectroscopic details of the dispersion of the bound states. Recent theoretical arguments claim that the surface Andreev bound states of the superfluid (3)He B phase can be recognized as the edge states of the topological superfluid and be regarded as a Majorana fermion, a fancy particle which has not been confirmed in elementary particle physics. In this review, we present up-to-date knowledge on the surface Andreev bound states of the (3)He B phase revealed by acoustic spectroscopy and the possible realization of a Majorana fermion, along with related studies on this topic.