Local Superfluidity in 4He and para-H2 Clusters

Author: Kwon Yongkyung   Whaley K. Birgitta  

Publisher: Springer Publishing Company

ISSN: 0022-2291

Source: Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Vol.138, Iss.1-2, 2005-01, pp. : 253-258

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

We present a new definition of local superfluidity around impurities in quantum fluids that provides a consistent analysis of the response of the inhomogeneous fluid density to the impurity rotations. This definition is based on the local decomposition of the moments of inertia of the fluid, which can be estimated from the projected area of exchange-coupled Feynman paths in path integral Monte Carlo calculations. Application to helium droplets doped with a planar phthalocyanine molecule shows that the first solvation layers parallel to the molecular plane consist of localized helium atoms that are totally inert to superfluid response, while the second solvation layers and capping regions at the end of the molecule exhibit partial and anisotropic superfluidity. Application to weakly bound complexes of the linear OCS molecule with para-hydrogen molecules shows evidence for the existence of molecular supersolids. We find that five H2 molecules constitute a single ring around OCS which possesses both a solid-like pair correlation function and a complete superfluid response to rotation around the molecular axis below T ~ 1 K.

Related content