In liquid helium-4, the superfluidity occurs at far higher temperatures than it does in helium-3. Each atom of helium-4 is a boson particle, by virtue of its integer spin. A helium-3 atom is a fermion particle; it can form bosons only by pairing with another particle like itself, which occurs at much lower temperatures. The discovery of superfluidity in helium-3 was the basis for the award of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics.[1] This process is similar to the electron pairing in superconductivity.
Cold atomic gases
Superfluidity in an ultracoldfermionic gas was experimentally proven by Wolfgang Ketterle and his team who observed quantum vortices in lithium-6 at a temperature of 50 nK at MIT in April 2005.[7][8] Such vortices had previously been observed in an ultracold bosonic gas using rubidium-87 in 2000,[9] and more recently in two-dimensional gases.[10] As early as 1999, Lene Hau created such a condensate using sodium atoms[11] for the purpose of slowing light, and later stopping it completely.[12] Her team subsequently used this system of compressed light[13] to generate the superfluid analogue of shock waves and tornadoes:[14]
These dramatic excitations result in the formation of solitons that in turn decay into quantized vortices—created far out of equilibrium, in pairs of opposite circulation—revealing directly the process of superfluid breakdown in Bose–Einstein condensates. With a double light-roadblock setup, we can generate controlled collisions between shock waves resulting in completely unexpected, nonlinear excitations. We have observed hybrid structures consisting of vortex rings embedded in dark solitonic shells. The vortex rings act as 'phantom propellers' leading to very rich excitation dynamics.
— Lene Hau, SIAM Conference on Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures
超流動暗黒物質の理論では、暗黒物質は特定のスケールで超流動状態で存在することができ、超流動内のフォノンを通じてMONDのような力を媒介します。この理論は、暗黒物質と修正重力の部分的な成功を再現することを意図しています。より小さなスケールでは、理論は MOND のようなダイナミクスを生成し、次に銀河の回転曲線や緊密なタリー・フィッシャー関係を予測する際の MOND の成功の再現を可能にし、高密度の暗黒物質ハローが過大な動的摩擦を生成するという通常の冷たい暗黒物質理論によって引き起こされる問題を回避します。[18] [19] [20]より大きなスケールでは、理論は温かい暗黒物質または熱い暗黒物質に似た動作を生み出し、MOND が重力の強さを過小評価する銀河団スケールでの追加質量を可能にし、宇宙マイクロ波背景放射などの暗黒物質によって十分に説明できる現象の再現を可能にします。