Chiral symmetry breaking in superfluid 3He-A.
Science
; 341(6141): 59-62, 2013 Jul 05.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23828937
ABSTRACT
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is an important concept in many branches of physics. In helium-3 ((3)He), the breaking of symmetry leads to the orbital chirality in the superfluid phase known as (3)He-A. Chirality is a fundamental property of (3)He-A, but its direct detection has been challenging. We report direct detection of chirality by transport measurements of electrons trapped below a free surface of (3)He-A. In particular, we observed the so-called intrinsic Magnus force experienced by a moving electron; the direction of the force directly reflected the chirality. We further showed that, at the superfluid transition, the system selected either right- or left-handed chirality. The observation of such selection directly demonstrates chiral symmetry breaking.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2013
Tipo de documento:
Article