Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 195302 (2007) [3 pages]Direct Measurement of Quantum Phase Gradients in Superfluid 4He FlowReceived 28 February 2007; published 9 May 2007 We report a new kind of experiment in which we generate a known superfluid velocity in a straight tube and directly determine the phase difference across the tube’s ends using a superfluid matter wave interferometer. By so doing, we quantitatively verify the relation between the superfluid velocity and the phase gradient of the condensate macroscopic wave function. Within the systematic error of the measurement (∼10%) we find νs=ℏ/m4∇ϕ. © 2007 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.195302
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.195302
PACS:
67.40.Rp, 67.40.Hf
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