Microscopic approach to the bcc phase of solid 4He

The coexistence between the hcp and bcc phases of solid 4He at fixed pressure, and at three different temperatures, is studied by means of the path integral Monte Carlo method. Microscopic results for the main energetic and structure properties of the two phases are reported. The differences between hcp and bcc 4He are shown to be small with the obvious exception of the static structure factor. When crossing the phase transition line, the most significant changes are observed in the kinetic energy per particle and in the Lindemann ratio, both pointing to a less correlated quantum solid in the bcc side. No off-diagonal long-range order is observed in the the hcp and bcc perfect lattices.