No Arabic abstract
The dynamics of superfluid 4He at and above the Landau quasiparticle regime is investigated by high precision inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the dynamic structure factor. A highly structured response is observed above the familiar phonon-maxon-roton spectrum, characterized by sharp thresholds for phonon-phonon, maxon-roton and roton-roton coupling processes. The experimental dynamic structure factor is compared to the calculation of the same physical quantity by a Dynamic Many-body theory including three-phonon processes self-consistently. The theory is found to provide a quantitative description of the dynamics of the correlated bosons for energies up to about three times that of the Landau quasiparticles.
In this work we perform an ab-initio study of an ideal two-dimensional sample of 4He atoms, a model for 4He films adsorbed on several kinds of substrates. Starting from a realistic hamiltonian we face the microscopic study of the excitation phonon-roton spectrum of the system at zero temperature. Our approach relies on Path Integral Ground State Monte Carlo projection methods, allowing to evaluate exactly the dynamical density correlation functions in imaginary time, and this gives access to the dynamical structure factor of the system S(q,omega), containing information about the excitation spectrum E(q), resulting in sharp peaks in S(q,omega). The actual evaluation of S(q,omega) requires the inversion of the Laplace transform in ill-posed conditions, which we face via the Genetic Inversion via Falsification of Theories technique. We explore the full density range from the region of spinodal decomposition to the freezing density, i.e. 0.0321 A^-2 - 0.0658 A^-2. In particular we follow the density dependence of the excitation spectrum, focusing on the low wave--vector behavior of E(q), the roton dispersion, the strength of single quasi--particle peak, Z(q), and the static density response function, chi(q). As the density increases, the dispersion E(q) at low wave--vector changes from a super-linear (anomalous dispersion) trend to a sub-linear (normal dispersion) one, anticipating the crystallization of the system; at the same time the maxon-roton structure, which is barely visible at low density, becomes well developed at high densities and the roton wave vector has a strong density dependence. Connection is made with recent inelastic neutron scattering results from highly ordered silica nanopores partially filled with 4He.
Surface waves on both superfluid 3He and 4He were examined with the premise, that these inviscid media would represent ideal realizations for this fluid dynamics problem. The work on 3He is one of the first of its kind, but on 4He it was possible to produce much more complete set of data for meaningful comparison with theoretical models. Most measurements were performed at the zero temperature limit, meaning T < 100 mK for 4He and T ~ 100 {mu}K for 3He. Dozens of surface wave resonances, including up to 11 overtones, were observed and monitored as the liquid depth in the cell was varied. Despite of the wealth of data, perfect agreement with the constructed theoretical models could not be achieved.
Flexural mode vibrations of miniature piezoelectric tuning forks (TF) are known to be highly sensitive to superfluid excitations and quantum turbulence in $mathrm{^3He}$ and $mathrm{^4He}$ quantum fluids, as well as to the elastic properties of solid $mathrm{^4He}$, complementing studies by large scale torsional resonators. Here we explore the sensitivity of a TF, capable of simultaneously operating in both the flexural and torsional modes, to excitations in the normal and superfluid $mathrm{^4He}$. The torsional mode is predominantly sensitive to shear forces at the sensor - fluid interface and much less sensitive to changes in the density of the surrounding fluid when compared to the flexural mode. Although we did not reach the critical velocity for quantum turbulence onset in the torsional mode, due to its order of magnitude higher frequency and increased acoustic damping, the torsional mode was directly sensitive to fluid excitations, linked to quantum turbulence created by the flexural mode. The combination of two dissimilar modes in a single TF sensor can provide a means to study the details of elementary excitations in quantum liquids, and at interfaces between solids and quantum fluid.
We have carried out a study of the momentum distribution and of the spectrum of elementary excitations of liquid $^4$He across the normal-superfluid transition temperature, using the path integral Monte Carlo method. Our results for the momentum distribution in the superfluid regime show that a kink is present in the range of momenta corresponding to the roton excitation. This effect disappears when crossing the transition temperature to the normal fluid, in a behavior currently unexplained by theory.
We revisited the phase diagram of the second layer of 4He on top of graphite using quantum Monte Carlo methods. Our aim was to explore the existence of the novel phases suggested recently in experimental works, and determine their properties and stability limits. We found evidence of a superfluid quantum phase with hexatic correlations, induced by the corrugation of the first Helium layer, and a quasi-two-dimensional supersolid corresponding to a 7/12 registered phase. The 4/7 commensurate solid was found to be unstable, while the triangular incommensurate crystals, stable at large densities, were normal.