Strong-coupling corrections to hard domain walls in superfluid 3He-B

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong-coupling effects influence the properties of domain walls in superfluid 3He-B, revealing that strong coupling favors their formation and affects their energetic characteristics across various conditions.

Contribution

It provides a self-consistent analysis of strong-coupling corrections on domain wall width and interfacial tension in superfluid 3He-B using Ginzburg-Landau equations.

Findings

Strong coupling favors domain wall formation over weak coupling.

Interface energy decreases with increasing temperature and pressure.

Results have implications for observing domain walls and related states in superfluid 3He-B.

Abstract

Domain walls in superfluid 3He-B have gained renewed interest in light of experimental progress on confining helium in nanofabricated geometries. Here, we study the effect of strong-coupling corrections on domain wall width and interfacial tension by determining self-consistent solutions to spatially-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations. We find that the formation of domain walls is generally energetically favored in strong coupling over weak coupling. Calculations were performed over a wide range of temperatures and pressures, showing decreasing interface energy with increasing temperature and pressure. This has implications for the observability of such domain walls in 3He-B, which are of both fundamental interest and form the basis for spatially-modulated pair-density wave states, when stabilized by strong confinement.