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    Dynamics of supersolid state: Normal fluid, superfluid, and supersolid velocities

    Wayne M. Saslow*

    • *Contact author: wsaslow@tamu.edu

    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 T=0 superfluid fraction ρS/ρ<1 (with ρ being the macroscopic mass density). Landau's excitation-based argument for superfluids—that at temperature T=0 the normal fluid mass density ρN is zero—should apply to supersolids. Together these two arguments imply that at low T there is a missing mass density. We attribute this to a supersolid density ρL, with ρL≡ρ−ρS−ρN and a momentum-bearing supersolid velocity vLi. We derive the macroscopic dynamical equations for this system with three momentum-bearing macroscopic velocities (vLi,vNi,vSi) using Onsager's irreversible thermodynamics. For slow spatial variations, vSi accelerates along the negative gradient of the chemical potential or mass, like for an ordinary superfluid, and vNi is subject to drag against vLi with a characteristic drag time τ. There are three contributions to the acceleration of vLi: drag against vNi, 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 τ, ρL moves independently of ρN. The normal modes for such a system have a crossover frequency below which the normal fluid velocity vNi is dragged into motion with vLi (so the theory reduces to the vSi,vNi theory of Andreev and Lifshitz) and above which the normal fluid velocity vNi 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 τ, that ρL and ρN move together but that at high frequencies ρL moves much more than ρN.

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