English

Collective modes in a quantum solid

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2016-08-17 v1 Other Condensed Matter Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We provide a theoretical explanation for the optical modes observed in inelastic neutron scattering (INS) on the bcc solid phase of helium 4 [T. Markovich, E. Polturak, J. Bossy, and E. Farhi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 195301 (2002)]. We argue that these excitations are amplitude (Higgs) modes associated with fluctuations of the crystal order parameter within the unit cell. We present an analysis of the modes based on an effective Ginzburg-Landau model, classify them according to their symmetry properties, and compute their signature in INS experiments. In addition, we calculate the dynamical structure factor by means of an ab intio quantum Monte Carlo simulation and find a finite frequency excitation at zero relative momentum.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1511.02866,
  title  = {Collective modes in a quantum solid},
  author = {Snir Gazit and Daniel Podolsky and Heloise Nonne and Assa Auerbach and Daniel P. Arovas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1511.02866},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

13 pages, 11 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T11:40:57.598Z