Brownian motion in superfluid $^4$He
Statistical Mechanics
2011-07-27 v2 Other Condensed Matter
Optics
Quantum Physics
Abstract
We propose to study the Brownian motion of a classical microsphere submerged in superfluid He using the recent laser technology as a direct investigation of the thermal fluctuations of quasiparticles in the quantum fluid. By calculating the temperature dependence of both the friction coefficient and the strength of the random force, we show that the resonant mode of the fluctuational motion can be fully resolved by the present technology. Contrary to the previous work, it is found that the roton contribution is not negligible, and it even becomes dominant when the temperature is above 0.76\,K.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1107.0485,
title = {Brownian motion in superfluid $^4$He},
author = {Xiao Li and Ran Cheng and Tongcang Li and Qian Niu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1107.0485},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures