Superfluid Hydrodynamics

The notion of superfluid and Bose-Einstein condensation are intimately related. Superfluids can flow through narrow tubes without dissipating heat due to their zero viscosity. A well-known example of superfluid is low-temperature helium-4 (and helium-3, which is a fermionic superfluid). What characterizes a superfluid is that it can only dissipate heat via creation of elementary excitations, and if the flow velocity is slower than the characteristic speed of sound in the superfluid, those elementary excitations cannot be spontaneously created, thus ensuring a frictionless flow (Landau's criterion). Indeed, dilute BEC gases also have a linear dispersion with non-zero speed of sound at low momentum (Bogoliubov dispersion) and feature superfluidity. But it is important to note some differences between a superfluid and a BEC. An ideal BEC will have a quadratic dispersion (zero speed of sound), and there is no energy gap to protect the ground state from excitations, so an ideal BEC cannot be a superfluid. Also, the condensate density of BEC is not equivalent to superfluid density, for at zero temperature, by definition the superfluid fraction is 100% and normal fraction is 0%, but the condensate fraction is less than 100%, due to quantum depletion.

We may transform the GPE into a hydronamic equation for a superfluid,

${\frac {\partial |\psi |^{2}}{\partial t}}+\nabla {\frac {\hbar }{2mi}}\left({\psi ^{*}\nabla \psi -\psi \nabla \psi ^{*}}\right)\,,$

by introducing flow, from current $j$,

$v={\frac {j}{n}}={\frac {\psi ^{*}\nabla \psi -\psi \nabla \psi ^{*}}{2mi|\psi |^{2}}}\,.$

This gives the continuity equation

${\frac {\partial n}{\partial t}}+\nabla (nv)=0\,.$

Writing $\psi =fe^{i\phi }$, and noting that the gradient of the phase gives us the velocity field, we get equations of motion for $f$ and $\phi$,

$-\hbar {\frac {\partial \phi }{\partial t}}=-frac{\hbar ^{2}}{2mf}\nabla ^{2}f+{\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}+V(r)+U_{0}f^{2}\,.$

This reduces to

${\begin{array}{rcl}m{\frac {\partial v}{\partial t}}&=&-\nabla (\delta \mu +{\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}\\\delta \mu &=&v+U_{0}n{\frac {\hbar ^{2}}{2m{\sqrt {n}}}}\nabla ^{2}{\sqrt {n}}-\mu _{0}\,.\end{array}}$

The Thomas-Fermi approximation is now applied, neglecting $\nabla f$, but keeping $\nabla \phi$, giving

$m{\frac {\partial ^{2}\delta n}{\partial t^{2}}}=U_{0}\nabla (n_{0}\nabla (\delta n))\,,$

a wave equation for the density. For $n_{0}$ constant, $U_{0}$ is the speed of sound squared, $c={\sqrt {U_{0}/m}}$. The Thomas-Fermi solution for $n_{0}$ gives collective modes of the condensate. A droplet of condensate can have shape resonances, waves, and many other physical behaviors, captured by these solutions.

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