On the Description of Quantum Vortices in Superfluid Films

TL;DR

This paper compares two quantum descriptions of vortices in superfluid films at zero temperature, using an effective action approach to analyze phonon-vortex interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum-field-theoretic framework for vortex dynamics, contrasting it with traditional quantum-mechanical models, and calculates phonon scattering amplitudes.

Findings

Quantum-field-theoretic description aligns with quantum-mechanical models at the one-loop level.

Calculated phonon-vortex scattering amplitudes using the effective action.

Provided insights into vortex-phonon interactions in superfluid films.

Abstract

The dynamics of vortices in a superfluid film at the absolute zero of temperature is studied. The quantum-mechanical, i.e., ``first-quantized'' description is compared to a recently proposed quantum-field-theoretic, i.e., ``second-quantized'' description. The theory, consisting of the nonrelativistic effective action of phonons linearly coupled to a Chern-Simons term, is used to calculate the one-loop amplitude for the elastic scattering of phonons from a vortex.