Abstract
Supersolidity is a rather controversial issue which has been revived recently by a number of torsional oscillator (ac-rotation) experiments with solid helium 4. One possibility would be that the ground state of helium 4 crystals contains a Bose-Einstein condensate of mobile vacancies. However, the supersolid signal was shown to depend on sample history. In addition, dc-flow experiments show that superfluid transport of mass does not occur in solid helium, except if it contains appropriate grain boundaries. As a consequence, we believe that supersolidity is not an intrinsic property of helium single crystals, but that it is due to quenched disorder. We report experiments on pressure relaxation in and light scattering from solid samples, that give additional evidence for the existence of disorder in helium crystals. We also describe our recent study of the wetting properties of grain boundaries.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
E. Kim, M.H.W. Chan, Nature 427, 225 (2004)
E. Kim, M.H.W. Chan, Science 305, 1941 (2004)
A.F. Andreev, I.M. Lifshitz, Sov. Phys. JETP 29, 1107 (1969)
G.V. Chester, Phys. Rev. A 2, 256 (1970)
A.J. Leggett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 25, 1543 (1970)
D.E. Galli, L. Reatto, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 165301 (2006)
S. Sasaki, F. Caupin, S. Balibar, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 205302 (2007)
A.S. Rittner, J.D. Reppy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 165301 (2006)
A. Penzev, Y. Yasuta, M. Kubota, J. Low Temp. Phys. 148, 677 (2007)
M. Kondo, S. Takada, Y. Shibayama, K. Shirahama, J. Low Temp. Phys. 148, 695 (2007)
A.C. Clark, J.T. West, M.H.W. Chan, arXiv:0706.0906
A.S. Rittner, J.D. Reppy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 175302 (2007)
S. Sasaki, F. Caupin, S. Balibar, in preparation
J. Day, J. Beamish, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 105304 (2006)
S. Sasaki, R. Ishiguro, F. Caupin, H.J. Maris, S. Balibar, Science 313, 1098 (2006)
S. Sasaki, R. Ishiguro, F. Caupin, H.J. Maris, S. Balibar, J. Low Temp. Phys. 148, 665 (2007)
K. Telschow, I. Rudnick, T.G. Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 32, 1292 (1974)
L. Pollet, M. Boninsegni, A.B. Kuklov, N.V. Prokof’ev, B.V. Svistunov, M. Troyer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 135301 (2007)
S. Balibar, H. Alles, A.Y. Parshin, Rev. Mod. Phys. 77, 317 (2005)
G.F. Bolling, W.A. Tiller, J. Appl. Phys. 31, 1345 (1960)
U. Böyük, K. Keşlioğlu, N. Maraşh, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 19, 116202 (2007) and references therein
J.P. Franck, K.E. Kornelsen, J.R. Manuel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 1463 (1983)
J.P. Franck, J. Gleeson, K.E. Kornelsen, J.R. Manuel, K.A. McGreer, J. Low Temp. Phys. 58, 153 (1985)
J.G. Dash, H.Y. Fu, J.S. Wettlaufer, Rep. Prog. Phys. 58, 115 (1995) and references therein
J.G. Dash, J.S. Wettlaufer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 235301 (2005)
J. Wilks, The Properties of Liquid and Solid Helium (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1967), p. 390
M. Boninsegni, A.B. Kuklov, L. Pollet, N.V. Prokof’ev, B.V. Svistunov, M. Troyer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 035301 (2007)
V.N. Grigor’ev, V.A. Maidanov, V.Y. Rubanskii, S.P. Rubets, E.Y. Rudavskii, A.S. Rybalko, Y.V. Syrnikov, V.A. Tikhii, arXiv:cond-mat/0702133 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Caupin, F., Sasaki, S. & Balibar, S. Supersolidity and Disorder in Solid Helium 4. J Low Temp Phys 150, 267–275 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-007-9545-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-007-9545-0
Keywords
- Supersolids
- Crystal growth
- Disorder and porous media
- Superfluid 4He
- Droplets, films, interfaces and wetting