Successive transitions and intermediate chiral phase in a superfuilid ^3He film

TL;DR

This paper investigates superfluid ^3He films using Monte Carlo simulations, revealing successive phase transitions including an intermediate chiral phase characterized by specific vector alignment and disordered condensate phase.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice spin model with complex symmetry to simulate superfluid ^3He films and uncovers a novel intermediate chiral phase with successive phase transitions.

Findings

Identification of a chiral phase with vector alignment

Observation of successive phase transitions

Discussion of experimental detection methods

Abstract

Superfluidity ordering of thin ^3He films is studied by Monte Carlo simulations based on a two-dimensional lattice spin model with Z_2\times U(1)\times SO(3) symmetry. Successive phase transitions with an intermediate `chiral' phase, in which the l-vector aligns keeping the phase of the condensate disordered, is found. Possible experiments to detect the successive transitions are discussed.