Nuclear and electronic coherence in superfluid helium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a semi-phenomenological model of superfluid helium considering nuclear and electronic Bose-Einstein condensates, explaining electrical activity and excitation spectra observed experimentally.

Contribution

It proposes a novel model with two condensates and identifies two excitation branches, providing a new interpretation of superfluid helium's electrical and spectral properties.

Findings

Existence of two excitation branches: sound and optical.

Resonant microwave absorption interpreted as an optical gap.

Electric potential distribution matches experimental observations.

Abstract

A semi-phenomenological model of a many-particle system of 4He atoms is proposed, in which a helium atom is considered as a complex consisting of a nucleus and a bound pair of electrons in the singlet state. At zero temperature, there are two Bose-Einstein condensates of particles with opposite charges, namely, a condensate of positively charged nuclei and a condensate of negatively charged electron pairs. It is shown that in such a system there exist two excitation branches: sound and optical. On the basis of this model an interpretation of experiments on the study of the eltctrical activity of superfluid heliun is proposed. The frequency at which the resonant absorption of a microwave radiation is observed is interpreted as a gap in the optical branch. It is shown that the distribution of the electric potential in a standing wave in a resonator is similar to that observed experimentally.