Nonclassical rotational behavior at the vicinity of the lamda point

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonclassical rotational behavior of helium-4 near the lambda point, revealing how growing quantum coherence affects moment of inertia and shear viscosity, challenging traditional superfluid density concepts.

Contribution

It provides a perturbation analysis of susceptibility showing how quantum coherence influences rotational properties near the lambda point, offering a new interpretation of shear viscosity.

Findings

Moment of inertia decreases slightly above the lambda point

Mechanical superfluid density differs from thermodynamical density near the transition

Quantum coherence growth affects rotational behavior and viscosity

Abstract

The rotational property of a quantum liquid at the vicinity of the lambda point is examined. In a liquid helium 4 just above the lambda point, under the strong influence of Bose statistics, the coherent many-body wave function grows to an intermediate size between a macroscopic and a microscopic one, which is of a different nature from the thermal fluctuations. It must reflect in the rotational properties such as the moment of inertia. Beginning with the bosons without the condensate, we make a perturbation calculation of its susceptibility with respect to the repulsive interaction, and examine how, with decreasing temperature, the growth of the coherent wave function gradually changes the rotational behavior of a liquid:The moment of inertia slightly decreases just above the lambda point. This means that at the vicinity of the lambda point, the mechanical superfluid density does not always agree with the thermodynamical one.We compare the result to the experiment by Hess and Fairbank. A new interpretation of the shear viscosity just above the lambda point is given from this viewpoint.