Vacuum tunneling of vortices in two-dimensional 4He superfluid films

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Desrochers, M. J.; Marchand, D. J. J.; Stamp, P. C. E.
• 署名单位: University of British Columbia; University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-10972
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2421273122
• 发表日期: 2025-09-09
• 关键词: feynman wave-function; vortex dynamics; inertial mass; free-surface; nucleation; phase; he-4

摘要

At low temperature T we expect vacuum tunneling processes to occur in superfluid 4He films. We distinguish between extrinsic processes, in which single vortices nucleate by tunneling off boundaries in the system, and intrinsic processes, in which vortex/antivortex pairs nucleate far from boundaries. It is crucial to incorporate the varying effective mass of the vortex in tunneling calculations. The intrinsic processes are the superfluid analogue of the Schwinger mechanism in quantum field theory; here they appear as a quantum phase transition at T = 0, driven by an external supercurrent. We calculate the tunneling rate for these processes, and describe a means of testing the predictions using a specific vortex counting experiment.