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Brownian motion in superfluid $^4$He

Statistical Mechanics 2011-07-27 v2 Other Condensed Matter Optics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We propose to study the Brownian motion of a classical microsphere submerged in superfluid 4^4He using the recent laser technology as a direct investigation of the thermal fluctuations of quasiparticles in the quantum fluid. By calculating the temperature dependence of both the friction coefficient and the strength of the random force, we show that the resonant mode of the fluctuational motion can be fully resolved by the present technology. Contrary to the previous work, it is found that the roton contribution is not negligible, and it even becomes dominant when the temperature is above 0.76\,K.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1107.0485,
  title  = {Brownian motion in superfluid $^4$He},
  author = {Xiao Li and Ran Cheng and Tongcang Li and Qian Niu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1107.0485},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

4 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:31:20.601Z