Superfluidity of Grain Boundaries in Solid Helium-4
Statistical Mechanics
2010-09-10 v2 Other Condensed Matter
Abstract
By large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations we show that grain boundaries in Helium-4 crystals are generically superfluid at low temperature, with a transition temperature of the order of ~0.5K at the melting pressure; insulating grain boundaries are found only for special orientations of the grains. We also find that close vicinity to the melting line is not a necessary condition for superfluid grain boundaries, and a grain boundary in direct contact with the superfluid liquid at the melting curve is found to be mechanically stable and the grain boundary superfluidity observed by Sasaki et al. [Science 313, 1098 (2006)] is not just a crack filled with superfluid.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0702159,
title = {Superfluidity of Grain Boundaries in Solid Helium-4},
author = {L. Pollet and M. Boninsegni and A. B. Kuklov and N. V. Prokof'ev and B. V. Svistunov and M. Troyer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0702159},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
replaced with published version, includes EPAPS material