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Condensed-matter physics

Supersolid helium

Nature volume 427, pages 204–205 (2004)Cite this article

Superfluids flow without resistance. It's hard to imagine, but quantum mechanically possible, that solids should do the same at low enough temperatures. Helium-4 might be the first known 'supersolid'.

At temperatures below 2.176 K, helium-4 enters a superfluid state and flows without friction. This 'perpetual motion' makes superfluidity — perhaps even more than its electronic counterpart, superconductivity — the most dramatic manifestation of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale. Despite its appeal, and despite many searches for superfluidity in other systems, it remains an uncommon phenomenon. From 1938, when superfluidity was discovered1,2, helium-4 was the only known example until 1972 when the phenomenon was seen3, at much lower temperatures, in helium-3. That temperature difference between the two isotopes' behaviour reflects the intimate connection of superfluidity to Bose–Einstein condensation — the transition that occurs when 'bosons' collect in a single quantum mechanical state. Atoms of helium-4 are bosons, but helium-3 atoms are 'fermions' and must pair up before they can condense into a single state.

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Figure 1: Super solid.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2J1, Alberta, Canada

    John Beamish

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  1. John Beamish
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Beamish, J. Supersolid helium. Nature 427, 204–205 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/427204a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/427204a

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