Nuclear spin correlations and collective excitations in supercritical H$_2$
Abstract
Nuclear spins are known to experience spontaneous long-range correlations only below 2.5 mili-Kelvin in superfluid He. Here we present the first evidence of nuclear spin coupling in molecular hydrogen (H) at 74-92 Kelvin using neutron scattering, showing a fundamental change in nature from the incoherent scattering universally expected from hydrogen, which reflects single particle properties of uncorrelated nuclear spins, to coherent, with a peak materializing on the elastic line, indicating H-H nuclear spin correlations. In this novel phase, the dynamic response of the system also changes nature, and collective excitations with an effective mass of nine H are observed with inelastic scattering at momentum transfers up to 37 \AA, corresponding to length scales smaller than the H-H bond, where previous experiments have always found single atom excitations. This novel behavior has only been observed from H within the subnanometer sized graphitic pores of a carbon material, marking the first demonstration that a confined materials environment can be used to control nuclear spin correlations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1602.01811,
title = {Nuclear spin correlations and collective excitations in supercritical H$_2$},
author = {Raina J. Olsen and Jon W. Taylor and Cristian I. Contescu and James R. Morris},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.01811},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
Submitted 12-21-2015