Nonlinear transport properties of the two-dimensional Wigner solid of surface electrons on superfluid helium are studied for alternating current conditions. For time-averaged quantities like Fourier coefficients, the field-velocity characteristics are shown to be qualitatively different as compared to that found in the DC theory. For a spatially uniform current we found a general solution for the field-velocity relationship which appears to be strongly dependent on the current frequency. If the current frequency is much lower than the ripplon damping parameter, the Bragg-Cherenkov resonances which appear at high enough drift velocities acquire a distinctive saw-tooth shape with long right-side tails independent of small damping. For current frequencies which are close or higher than the ripplon damping coefficient, the interference of ripplons excited at different time intervals results in a new oscillatory (in drift velocity) regime of Bragg-Cherenkov scattering.
Electrons on liquid helium can form different phases depending on density, and temperature. Also the electron-ripplon coupling strength influences the phase diagram, through the formation of so-called "ripplonic polarons", that change how electrons are localized, and that shifts the transition between the Wigner solid and the liquid phase. We use an all-coupling, finite-temperature variational method to study the formation of a ripplopolaron Wigner solid on a liquid helium film for different regimes of the electron-ripplon coupling strength. In addition to the three known phases of the ripplop…
The irrotational nature of superfluid helium was discovered through its decoupling from the container under rotation. Similarly, the resonant period drop of a torsional oscillator (TO) containing solid helium was first interpreted as the decoupling of solid from the TO and appearance of supersolid. However, the resonant period can be changed by mechanisms other than supersolid, such as the elastic stiffening of solid helium that is widely accepted as the reason for the TO response. To demonstrate the irrotational nature more directly, the previous experiments superimposed the dc rotation onto …
We demonstrate the trapping of millimeter-scale superfluid Helium drops in high vacuum. The drops are sufficiently isolated that they remain trapped indefinitely, cool by evaporation to 330 mK, and exhibit mechanical damping that is limited by internal processes. The drops are also shown to host optical whispering gallery modes. The approach described here combines the advantages of multiple techniques, and should offer access to new experimental regimes of cold chemistry, superfluid physics, and optomechanics.
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the 2D dynamics of electrically charged nanoparticles trapped under a free surface of superfluid helium in a static vertical electric field. We focus on the dynamics of particles driven by the interaction with quantized vortices terminating at the free surface. We identify two types of particle trajectories and the associated vortex structures: vertical linear vortices pinned at the bottom of the container and half-ring vortices travelling along the free surface of the liquid.
We comment on the paper by M. Sýkora, M. Pavelka, M. La Mantia, D. Jou, and M. Grmela "On the relations between large-scale models of superfluid helium-4," Physics of Fluids, 33(12):127124(2021), where the authors have developed a formalism for describing a coarse-grained flow of superfluid helium. This formalism is greatly based on the Hall-Vinen-Bekarevich-Khalatnikov (HVBK) model. We strongly disagree with the use of the HVBK equation approach for the case of the three-dimensional quantum turbulence and expose our objections in this comment. We discuss the HVBK method and also criticize the…
We have studied spinning superfluid $^4$He nanodroplets at zero temperature using Density Functional theory. Due to the irrotational character of the superfluid flow, the shapes of the spinning nanodroplets are very different from those of a viscous normal fluid drop in steady rotation. We show that when vortices are nucleated inside the superfluid droplets, their morphology, which evolves from axisymmetric oblate to triaxial prolate to two-lobed shapes, is in good agreement with experiments. The presence of vortex arrays confers to the superfluid droplets the rigid-body behavior of a normal f…
Preparing and detecting spatially extended quantum superpositions of a massive object comprises an important fundamental test of quantum theory. These quantum states are extremely fragile and tend to quickly decay into incoherent mixtures due to the environmental decoherence. Experimental setups considered up to date address this threat in a conceptually straightforward way -- by eliminating the environment, i.e. by isolating an object in a sufficiently high vacuum. We show that another option exists: decoherence is suppressed in the presence of a strongly interacting environment if this envir…
In the previous paper (Attard 2022d)on the fountain pressure in superfluid helium, it was shown that the experimentally confirmed expression of H. London (1939) was thermodynamically equivalent to equality of chemical potential. However this theoretical equivalence was not reflected in the experimental data. The problem has now been traced to errors in the enthalpy and entropy derived from the measured heat capacity by Donnelly and Barenghi (1998). In this paper the corrected thermodynamic data yields almost exact agreement between the two expressions and the measured fountain pressure. A phys…
We show that a two-excitation process in superfluid helium, combined with sensitivity to meV energy depositions, can probe dark matter down to the ~keV warm dark matter mass limit. This mass reach is three orders of magnitude below what can be probed with ordinary nuclear recoils in helium at the same energy resolution. For dark matter lighter than $\sim 100$ keV, the kinematics of the process requires the two athermal excitations to have nearly equal and opposite momentum, potentially providing a built-in coincidence mechanism for controlling backgrounds.
We report a counter-intuitive self-heating effect of helium-4 superflow. This fundamentally unusual heating effect bears a phenomenological resemblance to the Peltier effect of electric current across two different conductors. It reveals that helium-4 superflow carries thermal energy and entropy, which is in contrast to the two-fluid model of superfluid helium-4. A natural understanding of this heating effect is provided by a recently developed microscopic quantum theory of superfluid helium-4.
Immersed mechanical resonators are well suited for probing the properties of fluids, since the surrounding environment influences the resonant characteristics of such oscillators in several ways. Quartz tuning forks have gained much popularity in recent years as the resonators of choice for studies of liquid helium. They have many superior properties when compared to other oscillating bodies conventionally used for this purpose, such as vibrating wires. However, the intricate geometry of a tuning fork represents a challenge for analyzing their behavior in a fluid environment - analytical appro…
