Colloquia
2007
Colloquia
2007
The Supersolid Phase of Matter
Prof.
Matthias Troyer
Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zurich
Date
4-5 p.m., Thursday, 24 May, 2007
Location
School
of Physics Common Room
Room 64, Old Main Building
The
University of New South Wales
Abstract
For
nearly half a century the supersolid phase of matter has remained mysterious,
not only eluding experimental observation, but also generating a great
deal of controversy among theorists. The recent discovery of a non-classical
moment of inertia at low temperature in solid Helium-4 [1,2] has stirred
much excitement as a possible first observation of a supersolid. I will
review the experiments and present our large-scale quantum Monte Carlo
simulations [3,4] of supersolid behaviour in Helium crystals. While
we find that a perfect quantum crystal of Helium is insulating [3],
we also find that crystallographic defects such as grain boundaries
can carry superflow [4]. I will finally touch on the question of what
is needed to observe a supersolid in a perfect quantum crystal.
[1] E. Kim and M. H.W. Chan, Nature (London) 427, 225 (2004).
[2] E. Kim and M. H.W. Chan, Science 305, 1941 (2004).
[3] M. Boninsegni et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 080401 (2006).
[4] L. Pollet et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 135301 (2007).
The
audience is invited to meet the speaker beforehand at 3.45 p.m. over
wine and cheese in the Physics Common Room.
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