Orbital-Flop Transition of Angular Momentum in a Topological Superfluid
Superconductivity
2018-12-26 v1
Abstract
The direction of the orbital angular momentum of the -phase of superfluid He can be controlled by engineering the anisotropy of the silica aerogel framework within which it is imbibed. In this work, we report our discovery of an unusual and abrupt `orbital-flop' transition of the superfluid angular momentum between orientations perpendicular and parallel to the anisotropy axis. The transition has no hysteresis, warming or cooling, as expected for a continuous thermodynamic transition, and is not the result of a competition between strain and magnetic field. This demonstrates the spontaneous reorientation of the order parameter of an unconventional BCS condensate.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.01901,
title = {Orbital-Flop Transition of Angular Momentum in a Topological Superfluid},
author = {A. M. Zimmerman and J. I. A. Li and M. D. Nguyen and W. P. Halperin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.01901},
year = {2018}
}