Helicity Modulus, Superfluidity, and Scaling in Isotropic Systems

Abstract

The ordered state of a $d$-dimensional isotropic system with an $n$-vector ($n\ensuremath{\ge}2$) order parameter is considered. By the imposition of suitable boundary conditions it is shown how to define explicitly a helicity modulus $\ensuremath{\Upsilon}(T)$ which measures the free-energy increment associated with "twisting" the direction of the order parameter. For a Bose system the superfluid density is seen to be ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{s}(T)={(\frac{m}{\ensuremath{\hbar}})}^{2}\ensuremath{\Upsilon}(T)$. A critical exponent $v$ is defined by $\ensuremath{\Upsilon}(T)\ensuremath{\sim}{|T\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c}|}^{v}$ as $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{T}_{c}$; for an ideal Bose gas and spherical model ($n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$), $v=1$ is an exact result for all $d>2$. The difficulties of defining a correlation length in the ordered phase are discussed. A full scaling theory of the correlations avoids these problems and may be linked to a phenomenological hydrodynamic approach, to clarify and rederive Josephson's relation $v=2\ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{\nu}=2\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{\nu}$. This reduces to $v=(d\ensuremath{-}2)\ensuremath{\nu}$ (used by some authors with $d=3$), only if one accepts $d$-dependent, "hyperscaling" relations such as $d\ensuremath{\nu}=2\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}$; however, both these latter relations fail for the ideal Bose gas when $d>4$. An alternative derivation of the formula $v=2\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{\nu}$ is based on the scaling theory for systems with a large but finite dimension.