2007/02/28 by Lode Pollet, L. Pollet, Massimo Boninsegni +9 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.other #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.98.135301
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 135301 (2007) · replaced with published version, includes EPAPS material
openalex publication_date 2007/03/28 · arxiv created 2007/07/28 · arxiv updated 2010/09/10 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
By large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations we show that grain boundaries in 4He crystals are generically superfluid at low temperature, with a transition temperature of the order of approximately 0.5 K at the melting pressure; nonsuperfluid grain boundaries are found only for special orientations of the grains. We also find that close vicinity to the melting line is not a necessary condition for superfluid grain boundaries, and a grain boundary in direct contact with the superfluid liquid at the melting curve is found to be mechanically stable and the grain-boundary superfluidity observed by Sasaki et al. [Science 313, 1098 (2006)10.1126/science.1130879] is not just a crack filled with superfluid.