English

Bound state of a He-3 atom at the interface of crystal and superfluid He-4

Other Condensed Matter 2022-05-23 v3 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

The bound state of a He-3 atom at the interface between coexisting crystalline and superfluid phases of He-4 is studied theoretically by means of first principle Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We consider both the case of a solid/superfluid He-4 interface, as well as that of a few solid layers of He-4 forming on an attractive substrate. It is observed that the He-3 bound state is sharply localized in a well-defined, quasi-2D layer of He-4 in the region intermediate between the solid and the liquid. The layer in which the He-3 atom resides displays an intriguing interplay of atomic localization and quantum-mechanical exchanges; is not necessarily the first "non-solid" layer, as suggested in previous studies, and it is affected by the attractive strength of the substrate.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.01264,
  title  = {Bound state of a He-3 atom at the interface of crystal and superfluid He-4},
  author = {Massimo Boninsegni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.01264},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

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