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Quasi-2D \(\hbox {H}_2\): On the Verge of Turning Superfluid?

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Abstract

First principle computer simulations of a thin parahydrogen film adsorbed on a silica substrate at low temperature (below 6 K) yield no evidence that the top layer is liquid and/or in the proximity of a superfluid transition, as claimed in recent experimental work (Makiuchi et al. in Phys Rev Lett 123:245301, 2019). Computed values of first and second layer completion densities are in quantitative agreement with experiment, but as observed also on other substrates, the top layer is an insulating crystal, quantum-mechanical exchanges of molecules are non-existent, and the overall physical behavior of the system can be understood largely along classical lines.

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Notes

  1. Theoretical evidence suggests that the properties of an adsorbed layer of p-\(\hbox {H}_2\) on the inner surface of a cylinder of such a large diameter, are essentially identical with those on a flat substrate. See, for instance, Ref. [10].

  2. This value is approximately 40% of that on a graphene substrate, for which second layer promotion is predicted to occur at \(\theta \sim 0.112\) \(\AA ^{-2}\) [36].

  3. More quantitatively, we estimate that the fraction of p-\(\hbox {H}_2\) molecules involved in exchange cycles in the most favorable conditions explored here, namely for the top layer of a two-layer film of coverage \(\theta =0.155\) \(\AA ^{-2}\) at a temperature \(T=0,5\) K is less than 0.001%.

  4. It is worth pointing out that even \(^4\)He would crystallize at low temperature, if exchanges were suppressed, as shown in Ref. [24].

  5. Defects are attributable both to the relatively high temperature, as well as the difficulty of fitting two triangular lattices of different density and number of particles, i.e., the two different layers, in the same simulation cell.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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  1. Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E1, Canada

    Massimo Boninsegni

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Boninsegni, M. Quasi-2D \(\hbox {H}_2\): On the Verge of Turning Superfluid?. J Low Temp Phys 202, 1–10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-020-02548-6

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