Random walk of a massive quasiparticle in the phonon gas of an ultralow temperature superfluid

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the stochastic motion of a massive quasiparticle in a low-temperature superfluid, deriving exact expressions for its scattering, friction, and diffusion properties, with applications to cold atom experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive calculation of quasiparticle dynamics in a superfluid, including force and diffusion coefficients, and refutes prior claims about the absence of fermionic quasiparticles.

Findings

Derived exact scattering amplitudes for phonon-quasiparticle interactions.

Characterized the quasiparticle's erratic motion and diffusion coefficients.

Demonstrated the applicability to cold atom superfluids and corrected previous misconceptions.

Abstract

We consider a 3D homogeneous superfluid at low temperature $T$ with 2 types of excitations, gapless phonons with a linear dispersion relation at low wavenumber, and gapped quasiparticles with a quadratic dispersion relation around extrema. We calculate the scattering amplitude of a phonon on a quasiparticle to leading order in $T$ for all subsonic quasiparticle velocities, with a $S$-matrix formalism between exact asymptotic states dressed by virtual phonons. We then characterize the erratic motion of the quasiparticle in the superfluid due to its unceasing collisions with thermal phonons through mean force $F(k)$, longitudinal and transverse $k$-dependent momentum diffusion coefficients, and spatial diffusion coefficient. At the minimum location $k_0$ of the dispersion relation, where the velocity vanishes, $F(k)$ varies linearly with velocity with an isotropic friction coefficient; if $k_0=0$, the momentum diffusion is also isotropic and $F(k_0)=0$; if $k_0>0$, it is not, and $F(k_0)$ is nonzero but subleading with respect to friction by one order in $T$. The velocity time correlation function, whose integral is the spatial diffusion coefficient, decays with the mean velocity damping rate if $k_0=0$; if $k_0>0$, it has a second exponential component, with an amplitude and a damping rate lower by a factor $\propto T$ (it is the velocity direction thermalization rate). We also characterize force and momentum diffusion close to the stability domain sonic edge. Our general expressions are expected to be exact to leading order in $T$. We illustrate them in the BCS approximation, for a fermionic quasiparticle (an unpaired fermion) in a superfluid of spin 1/2 fermions, realisable with cold atoms in flat bottom traps. We also refute the statement of Lerch, Bartosch and Kopietz (2008), that there would be no fermionic quasiparticle in such a superfluid.