Theory for superfluidity in a Bose system

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic theory for superfluidity in Bose systems, revealing particle pairing, an energy gap, and thermodynamic properties similar to superconductivity, and explains phenomena like the Hess-Fairbank effect.

Contribution

It introduces a pairing mechanism for particles in Bose superfluids, derives key thermodynamic relations, and proposes a new equation linking superfluid current and vorticity.

Findings

Existence of an energy gap in the excitation spectrum.

Superfluid free energy increases with superfluid velocity.

The theory qualitatively explains the Hess-Fairbank effect.

Abstract

We present a microscopic theory for superfluidity in an interacting many-particle Bose system (such as liquid $^4$He). We show that, similar to superconductivity in superconductors, superfluidity in a Bose system arises from pairing of particles of opposite momenta. We show the existence of an energy gap in single-particle excitation spectrum in the superfluid state and the existence of a specific heat jump at the superfluid transition. We derive an expression for superfluid particle density $n_s$ as a function of temperature $T$ and superfluid velocity ${\bf v}_s$. We show that superfluid-state free energy density $F$ is an increasing function of $v_s$ (i.e., $\partial F/\partial v_s > 0$), which indicates that a superfluid has a tendency to remain motionless (this result qualitatively explains the Hess-Fairbank effect, which is analogous to the Meissner effect in superconductors). We further speculate the existence of the equation ${\bf j}=-\Lambda\nabla\times \text{\boldmath $\omega$}$, where ${\bf j} = n_s{\bf v}_s$ is the superfluid current density, $\text{\boldmath $\omega$}=\nabla\times {\bf v}_s$ the superfluid vorticity, and $\Lambda$ a positive constant (with the help of this equation, the Hess-Fairbank effect can be quantitatively described).