Single-fluid model for rotating annular supersolids and its experimental implications

TL;DR

This paper develops a single-fluid model for rotating annular supersolids, revealing unique rotation behaviors like partially quantized supercurrents, and discusses experimental methods to observe these phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a single-fluid theoretical framework for rotating supersolids, connecting classical and superfluid dynamics through a spatially varying phase.

Findings

Derivation of a single-fluid model for supersolids.

Prediction of partially quantized supercurrents in annular geometries.

Proposal of experimental protocols to detect rotation dynamics.

Abstract

The famous two-fluid model of finite-temperature superfluids has been recently extended to describe the mixed classical-superfluid dynamics of the newly discovered supersolid phase of matter. We show that for rigidly rotating supersolids one can derive a more appropriate single-fluid model, in which the seemingly classical and superfluid contributions to the motion emerge from a spatially varying phase of the global wavefunction. That allows to design experimental protocols to excite and detect the peculiar rotation dynamics of annular supersolids, including partially quantized supercurrents, in which each atom brings less than $\hbar$ unit of angular momentum. Our results are valid for a more general class of density-modulated superfluids.