No Arabic abstract
The low temperature phase diagram of $^4$He adsorbed on a single graphene sheet is studied by computer simulation of a system comprising nearly thousand helium atoms. In the first layer, two commensurate solid phases are observed, with fillings 1/3 and 7/16 respectively, separated by a domain wall phase, as well as an incommensurate crystal at higher coverage. No evidence of a thermodynamically stable superfliuid phase is found for the first adlayer. Second layer promotion occurs at a coverage of 0.111(4) $AA^{-2}$. In the second layer two phases are observed, namely a superfluid and an incommensurate solid, with no commensurate solid intervening between these two phases. The computed phase diagram closely resembles that predicted for helium on graphite.
The ground state of $^4$He confined in a system with the topology of a cylinder can display properties of a solid, superfluid and liquid crystal. This phase, which we call compactified supersolid (CSS), originates from wrapping the basal planes of the bulk hcp solid into concentric cylindrical shells, with several central shells exhibiting superfluidity along the axial direction. Its main feature is the presence of a topological defect which can be viewed as a disclination with Frank index $n=1$ observed in liquid crystals, and which, in addition, has a superfluid core. The CSS as well as its transition to an insulating compactified solid with a very wide hysteresis loop are found by ab initio Monte Carlo simulations. A simple analytical model captures qualitatively correctly the main property of the CSS -- a gradual decrease of the superfluid response with increasing pressure.
We describe the first observations on the time-dependent dissipation when the drive level of a torsional oscillator containing solid He-4 is abruptly changed. The relaxation of dissipation in solid He-4 shows rich dynamical behavior including exponential and logarithmic time-dependent decays, hysteresis, and memory effects.
The non-classical rotational inertia fraction of the identical cylindrical solid $^4$He below 300 mK is studied at 496 and 1173 Hz by a double resonance torsional oscillator. Below 35 mK, the fraction is the same at sufficiently low rim velocities. Above 35 mK, the fraction is greater for the higher than the lower mode. The dissipation peak of the lower mode occurs at a temperature $sim$ 4 mK lower than that of the higher mode. The drive dependence of the two modes shows that the reduction of the fraction is characterized by critical velocity, textit{not} amplitude nor acceleration.
We determine the phase diagram and the momentum distribution for a one-dimensional Bose gas with repulsive short range interactions in the presence of a two-color lattice potential, with incommensurate ratio among the respective wave lengths, by using a combined numerical (DMRG) and analytical (bosonization) analysis. The system displays a delocalized (superfluid) phase at small values of the intensity of the secondary lattice V2 and a localized (Bose glass-like) phase at larger intensity V2. We analyze the localization transition as a function of the height V2 beyond the known limits of free and hard-core bosons. We find that weak repulsive interactions unfavor the localized phase i. e. they increase the critical value of V2 at which localization occurs. In the case of integer filling of the primary lattice, the phase diagram at fixed density displays, in addition to a transition from a superfluid to a Bose glass phase, a transition to a Mott-insulating state for not too large V2 and large repulsion. We also analyze the emergence of a Bose-glass phase by looking at the evolution of the Mott-insulator lobes when increasing V2. The Mott lobes shrink and disappear above a critical value of V2. Finally, we characterize the superfluid phase by the momentum distribution, and show that it displays a power-law decay at small momenta typical of Luttinger liquids, with an exponent depending on the combined effect of the interactions and of the secondary lattice. In addition, we observe two side peaks which are due to the diffraction of the Bose gas by the second lattice. This latter feature could be observed in current experiments as characteristics of pseudo-random Bose systems.
We study a sub monolayer He-4 adsorbed on fluorographene (GF) and on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) at low coverage. The adsorption potentials have been computed ab-initio with a suitable density functional theory including dispersion forces. The properties of the adsorbed He-4 atoms have been computed at finite temperature with path integral Monte Carlo and at T=0 K with variational path integral. From both methods we find that the lowest energy state of He-4 on GF is a superfluid. Due to the very large corrugation of the adsorption potential this superfluid has a very strong spatial anisotropy, the ratio between the largest and smallest areal density being about 6, the superfluid fraction at the lowest T is about 55%, and the temperature of the transition to the normal state is in the range 0.5-1 K. Thus, GF offers a platform for studying the properties of a strongly interacting highly anisotropic bosonic superfluid. At a larger coverage He-4 has a transition to an ordered commensurate state with occupation of 1/6 of the adsorption sites. This phase is stable up to a transition temperature located between 0.5 and 1~K. The system has a triangular order similar to that of He-4 on graphite. The lowest energy state of He-4 on hBN is an ordered commensurate state with occupation of 1/3 of the adsorption sites and triangular symmetry. A disordered state is present at lower coverage as a metastable state. In the presence of an electric field the corrugation of the adsorption potential is slightly increased but up to a magnitude of 1 V/Ang. the effect is small and does not change the stability of the phases of He-4 on GF and hBN. We have verified that also in the case of graphene such electric field does not modify the stability of the commensurate sqrt{3}*sqrt{3}R30 phase.