English

Theory for superfluidity in a Bose system

Superconductivity 2009-03-12 v2

Abstract

We present a microscopic theory for superfluidity in an interacting many-particle Bose system (such as liquid 4^4He). We show that, similar to superconductivity in superconductors, superfluidity in a Bose system arises from pairing of particles of opposite momenta. We show the existence of an energy gap in single-particle excitation spectrum in the superfluid state and the existence of a specific heat jump at the superfluid transition. We derive an expression for superfluid particle density nsn_s as a function of temperature TT and superfluid velocity vs{\bf v}_s. We show that superfluid-state free energy density FF is an increasing function of vsv_s (i.e., F/vs>0\partial F/\partial v_s > 0), which indicates that a superfluid has a tendency to remain motionless (this result qualitatively explains the Hess-Fairbank effect, which is analogous to the Meissner effect in superconductors). We further speculate the existence of the equation {\bf j}=-\Lambda\nabla\times \text{\boldmath \omega}, where j=nsvs{\bf j} = n_s{\bf v}_s is the superfluid current density, \text{\boldmath \omega}=\nabla\times {\bf v}_s the superfluid vorticity, and Λ\Lambda a positive constant (with the help of this equation, the Hess-Fairbank effect can be quantitatively described).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0807.1503,
  title  = {Theory for superfluidity in a Bose system},
  author = {Zhidong Hao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.1503},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

17 pages 12 figures; revised; and added quatitative description of Hess-Fiarbank effect

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:59:00.068Z