Superfluid memory effect

Abstract

We identify a memory effect produced by phonon scattering in a superfluid: a localized scattering event generates a far-field pressure pulse with vanishing time integral but a nonzero first temporal moment, corresponding to a permanent shift in a prepotential for the far-field velocity. The effect is controlled by the soft factor for phonon emission, including corrections from nonlinear dispersion. In superfluid ${}^4$He, scattering macroscopic phonon wave packets produces a signal whose estimated magnitude may lie within experimental reach, thereby providing a laboratory analogue of electromagnetic and gravitational memory.

5 pages, 2 figures