What is a superfluid in chemistry?

A superfluid is a state of matter in which matter behaves like a fluid with zero viscosity. The substance, which looks like a normal liquid, flows without friction past any surface, which allows it to continue to circulate over obstructions and through pores in containers which hold it, subject only to its own inertia.

How many superfluids are there?

One manifestation of this is that there are three superfluid phases of liquid 3He, called A, B, and A1, which are distinguished by the different internal structures of the Cooper pairs.

Is water a superfluid?

Water is a liquid at a much higher temperature and solidifies into ice when cooled below 273K (0°C) so there is no way water can ever be a superfluid.

Is helium a superfluid?

No longer a mere liquid, the helium has become a superfluid—a liquid that flows without friction. Onnes found that helium (technically, the helium 4 isotope) began to readily conduct heat below –455.67 degrees F (–270.92 degrees C), also known as the lambda point.

Is Mercury a superfluid?

At nearly the coldest temperature possible – mercury (with the aid of liquid helium) – forms a state called superconductivity. At the extreme, electrons flow unencumbered through what is known as a superfluid.

What are superfluid clusters?

We propose to utilize this characterization to identify the complete zero-temperature phase diagram of the disordered BHM in d ⩾ 2 dimensions by analysing the geometric properties of what we call superfluid (SF) clusters, which are defined to be clusters of sites with non-integer expectation values for the local boson …

Is space a superfluid?

Even at the absolute zero temperatures found in space, a superfluid remains a smoothly flowing liquid, and its individual particles behave as a collective entity. But a certain set of substances, such as liquid helium, effectively remain a liquid all the way to absolute zero temperature.

What is a superfluid for kids?

Superfluidity is a very special state of matter where a liquid can act very strangely. Some of the things a superfluid can do is: It can flow extremely easily. (How easily a liquid can flow is called its viscosity.)

Is dark matter a superfluid?

The dark matter particles are axion-like, with masses of order eV. They Bose-Einstein condense into a superfluid phase in the central regions of galaxy halos. The superfluid phonon excitations in turn couple to baryons and mediate a long-range force (beyond Newtonian gravity).