Dynamics of supersolid state: Normal fluid, superfluid, and supersolid velocities
Phys. Rev. A 112, 033303 – Published 3 September, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yyjt-1tth
Abstract
We consider the dynamics of a supersolid state that is based on Leggett's idea of local phase flow around the atomic sites of the solid. This leads to a local microscopic superfluid velocity that is not Galilean and is defined only relative to the solid and a superfluid fraction (with being the macroscopic mass density). Landau's excitation-based argument for superfluids—that at temperature the normal fluid mass density is zero—should apply to supersolids. Together these two arguments imply that at low there is a missing mass density. We attribute this to a supersolid density , with and a momentum-bearing supersolid velocity . We derive the macroscopic dynamical equations for this system with three momentum-bearing macroscopic velocities using Onsager's irreversible thermodynamics. For slow spatial variations, accelerates along the negative gradient of the chemical potential or mass, like for an ordinary superfluid, and is subject to drag against with a characteristic drag time . There are three contributions to the acceleration of : drag against , along the negative gradient of the chemical potential or mass, and due to the forces of lattice elasticity. For high-frequency motion relative to the drag time , moves independently of . The normal modes for such a system have a crossover frequency below which the normal fluid velocity is dragged into motion with (so the theory reduces to the theory of Andreev and Lifshitz) and above which the normal fluid velocity is an independent variable. For an isotropic lattice we study the transverse and longitudinal responses. A frequency-dependent rotational inertia experiment is predicted to show, at frequencies that are low relative to , that and move together but that at high frequencies moves much more than .