Observation of half-quantum vortices in topological superfluid 3He
Other Condensed Matter
2016-12-21 v5 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract
One of the most sought-after objects in topological quantum matter systems is a vortex carrying half a quantum of circulation. They were originally predicted to exist in superfluid 3He-A, but have never been resolved there. Here we report an observation of half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in the polar phase of superfluid 3He. The vortices are created with rotation or by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism and identified based on their nuclear magnetic resonance signature. This discovery provides a pathway for studies of unpaired Majorana modes bound to the HQV cores in the polar-distorted A phase.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1508.02197,
title = {Observation of half-quantum vortices in topological superfluid 3He},
author = {S. Autti and V. V. Dmitriev and J. T. Mäkinen and A. A. Soldatov and G. E. Volovik and A. N. Yudin and V. V. Zavjalov and V. B. Eltsov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.02197},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
10 pages, 6 figures, version accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett