Half - Quantum Vortices

Abstract

Unlike to superfluid ${}^4$He the superfluid ${}^3$He-A support the existence of vortices with half quantum of circulation as well as single quantum vortices. The singular single quanta vortices as well as nonsingular vortices with 2 quanta of circulation have been revealed in rotating ${}^3$He-A. However, the half quantum vortices in open geometry always possess an extra energy due to spin-orbit coupling leading to formation of domain wall at distances larger than dipole length $\sim 10^{-3}cm$ from the vortex axis. Fortunately the same magnetic dipole-dipole interaction does not prevent the existence of half-quantum vortices in the polar phase of superfluid ${}^3$He recently discovered in peculiar porous media "nematically ordered" aerogel. Here we discuss this exotic possibility. The discoveries of half-quantum vortices in triplet pairing superconductor Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$ as well in the exciton-polariton condensates are the other parts of the story about half-quantum vortices also described in the paper.

6 pages, no figures

References in corpus (3)

• Evaluation of Spin-Triplet Superconductivity in Sr2RuO4
• Observation of half-height magnetization steps in Sr2RuO4
• Theory of 2D superconductor with broken inversion symmetry

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Short range inter-vortex interaction and interacting dynamics of half-quantized vortices in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates
• Coreless vortices as direct signature of chiral $d$-wave superconductivity
• Half-quantum vortices in polar phase of superfluid He-3
• Robust and tunable coreless vortices and fractional vortices in chiral $d$-wave superconductors
• Influence of Exchange Scattering on Superfluid He-3 states in Nematic Aerogel
• Orbital moiré and quadrupolar triple-q physics in a triangular lattice
• Phase slips, dislocations, half-integer vortices, two-fluid hydrodynamics and the chiral anomaly in charge and spin density waves