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Title: General theory unifying and extending the Landau-Khalatnikov, Ginzburg-Pitaevskii, and Hills-Roberts theories of superfluid /sup 4/He

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev., B: Condens. Matter; (United States)

A general phenomenological theory of superfluid /sup 4/He is presented which takes account of the effects of healing and relaxation. The Landau-Khalatnikov theory and the Hills-Roberts theory are treated as special cases. The starting point for the derivation of the general theory is an extension of Zilsel's variational principle that includes the gradient of the superfluid mass density as an additional independent variable. Among the resulting equations an essential part is played by a partial differential equation that expresses the equilibrium of the superfluid density. The extension of the general theory to dissipative situations is characterized by a 3 x 3 matrix of kinetic coefficients. Introduction of the complex order parameter in the variational principle leads to a nondissipative version of the Ginzburg-Pitaevskii (GP) equation. When extended to the dissipative case, it contains three complex relaxation coefficients which are simply related to the kinetic coefficients. The Psi theory of Ginzburg and Pitaevskii and its modification given by Khalatnikov are both formally included in the general time-dependent GP equation as special cases.

Research Organization:
Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
OSTI ID:
5055896
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev., B: Condens. Matter; (United States), Vol. 22:7
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English