Squeezing Superfluid from a Stone: Coupling Superfluidity and Elasticity in a Supersolid
- Department of Physics, University of Florida, P.O. Box 118440, Gainesville, Florida 32611-8440 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
- Institute for Theoretical Science, Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403 (United States)
Starting from the assumption that the normal solid to supersolid (NS-SS) phase transition is continuous, we develop a phenomenological Landau theory of the transition in which superfluidity is coupled to the elasticity of the crystalline {sup 4}He lattice. We find that the elasticity does not affect the universal properties of the superfluid transition, so that in an unstressed crystal the well-known {lambda} anomaly in the heat capacity of the superfluid transition should also appear at the NS-SS transition. We also find that the onset of supersolidity leads to anomalies in the elastic moduli and thermal expansion coefficients near the transition and, conversely, that inhomogeneous lattice strains can induce local variations of the superfluid transition temperature, leading to a broadened transition.
- OSTI ID:
- 20778593
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.055301; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Supersolidity, entropy, and frustration: t-t{sup '}-V model of hard-core bosons on the triangular lattice
Excitations in Correlated Superfluids near a Continuous Transition into a Supersolid