We consider a uniform superfluid confined in two compartments connected by a superleak and initially held at equal temperatures. If one of the two compartments is heated, a fraction of the superfluid will flow through the superleak. We show that, und
er certain thermodynamic conditions, the atoms flow from the hotter to the colder compartment, contrary to what happens in the fountain effect observed in superfluid Helium. This flow causes quantum degeneracy to increase in the colder compartment. In superfluid Helium, this novel thermomechanical effect takes place in the phonon regime of very low temperatures. In dilute quantum gases, it occurs at all temperatures below Tc . The increase in quantum degeneracy reachable through the adiabatic displacement of the wall separating the two compartments is also discussed.
We consider a classical, two-dimensional system of identical particles which interact via a finite-ranged, repulsive pair potential. We assume that the system is in a crystalline phase. We calculate the normal vibrational modes of a two-dimensional s
quare Bravais lattice, first analytically within the nearest-neighbour approximation, and then numerically, relaxing the preceding hypothesis. We show that, in the harmonic approximation, the excitation of a transverse vibrational mode leads to the breakdown of the square lattice. We next study the case of the hexagonal Bravais lattice and we show that it can be stable with respect to lattice vibrations. We give a criterion determining whether or not it is stable in the nearest-neighbour approximation. Finally, we apply our results to a two-dimensional system of composite bosons and infer that the crystalline phase of such a system, if it exists, corresponds to a hexagonal lattice.
