English

Properties of Vacancy Formation in He-4 hcp Crystals at Zero Temperature and Fixed Pressure

Other Condensed Matter 2011-12-30 v1

Abstract

Equation of state of He-4 hcp crystals with vacancies is determined at zero temperature using the diffusion Monte Carlo technique, an exact ground state zero-temperature method. This allows us to extract the formation enthalpy and isobaric formation energy of a single vacancy in otherwise perfect helium solid. Results were obtained for pressures up to 160 bar. The isobaric formation energy is found to reach a minimum near 57 bar where it is equal to 10.5±1.210.5\pm 1.2 K. At the same pressure, the vacancy formation volume exhibits a maximum and reaches the volume of the unit cell. This pressure coincides with the pressure interval over which a peak in the supersolid fraction of He-4 was observed in a recent experiment.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1007.0161,
  title  = {Properties of Vacancy Formation in He-4 hcp Crystals at Zero Temperature and Fixed Pressure},
  author = {Y. Lutsyshyn and C. Cazorla and G. E. Astrakharchik and J. Boronat},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1007.0161},
  year   = {2011}
}