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Article
Supersolid State of Matter
Physics Review Letters
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
We prove that the necessary condition for a solid to be also a superfluid is to have zero-point vacancies, or interstitial atoms, or both, as an integral part of the ground state. As a consequence, in the absence of symmetry between vacancies and interstitials, superfluidity has a zero probability to occur in commensurate solids which break continuous translation symmetry. We discuss recent 4He experiments by Kim and Chan in the context of this theorem, question its bulk supersolid interpretation, and offer an alternative explanation in terms of superfluid interfaces.
Disciplines
Comments
This is the pre-published version harvested from ArXiv. The published version is located at http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v94/i15/e155302
Citation Information
Nikolai Prokof'ev and Boris Svistunov. "Supersolid State of Matter" Physics Review Letters Vol. 94 Iss. 15 (2005) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/nikolai_prokofev/3/