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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 96 » Issue 10
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 105301 (2006) [4 pages]

Superglass Phase of 4He

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Massimo Boninsegni1, Nikolay Prokof’ev2,3,4, and Boris Svistunov2,3
1Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2J1, Canada
2Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA
3Russian Research Center “Kurchatov Institute,” 123182 Moscow, Russia
4Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA

Received 8 December 2005; published 16 March 2006

We study different solid phases of 4He, by means of path integral Monte Carlo simulations based on a recently developed worm algorithm. Our study includes simulations that start off from a high-T gas phase, which is then “quenched” down to T=0.2  K. The low-T properties of the system crucially depend on the initial state. While an ideal hcp crystal is a clear-cut insulator, the disordered system freezes into a superglass, i.e., a metastable amorphous solid featuring off-diagonal long-range order and superfluidity.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.105301
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.105301
PACS:
67.80.−s, 05.30.Jp, 67.40.Kh, 75.10.Jm
 
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