Phase order in superfluid helium films

Steven T. Bramwell, Michael F. Faulkner, Peter C.W. Holdsworth, Andrea Taroni

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
313 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Classic experimental data on helium films are transformed to estimate a finite-size phase order parameter that measures the thermal degradation of the condensate fraction in the two-dimensional superfluid. The order parameter is found to evolve thermally with the exponent , a characteristic, in analogous magnetic systems, of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition. Universal scaling near the BKT fixed point generates a collapse of experimental data on helium and ferromagnetic films, and implies new experiments and theoretical protocols to explore the phase order. These results give a striking example of experimental finite-size scaling in a critical system that is broadly relevant to two-dimensional Bose fluids. This paper is dedicated to the memory of our friend and colleague Maxime Clusel, with whom we enjoyed many stimulating discussions on related topics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number56003
JournalEPL
Volume112
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Dec 2015

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