RESUMEN
The nature of the quantum-to-classical crossover remains one of the most challenging open question of Science to date. In this respect, moving objects play a specific role. Pioneering experiments over the last few years have begun exploring quantum behaviour of micron-sized mechanical systems, either by passively cooling single GHz modes, or by adapting laser cooling techniques developed in atomic physics to cool specific low-frequency modes far below the temperature of their surroundings. Here instead we describe a very different approach, passive cooling of a whole micromechanical system down to 500 µK, reducing the average number of quanta in the fundamental vibrational mode at 15 MHz to just 0.3 (with even lower values expected for higher harmonics); the challenge being to be still able to detect the motion without disturbing the system noticeably. With such an approach higher harmonics and the surrounding environment are also cooled, leading to potentially much longer mechanical coherence times, and enabling experiments questioning mechanical wave-function collapse, potentially from the gravitational background, and quantum thermodynamics. Beyond the average behaviour, here we also report on the fluctuations of the fundamental vibrational mode of the device in-equilibrium with the cryostat. These reveal a surprisingly complex interplay with the local environment and allow characteristics of two distinct thermodynamic baths to be probed.
RESUMEN
The existence of Majorana quasiparticles was predicted in the edge state in topological insulators, especially in the p-wave superfluid medium [Formula: see text]He-B. Due to its purity and coherent quantum state, [Formula: see text]He-B is an ideal platform for searching for Majorana fermions in condensed matter systems. In the limit of extremely low temperatures, the density of Bogolyubov quasiparticles and the heat capacity of [Formula: see text]He-B decrease exponentially. In this article, we present the first observation of the deviation of its heat capacity from exponential dependence in the limit of record low cooling. We found an additional heat capacity that more than doubled the heat capacity of bulk [Formula: see text]He-B and changes as T[Formula: see text]. The additional heat capacity is in good agreement with the predicted heat capacity of 2D gas of Majorana. This observation is a direct proof of the existence of Majorana quasiparticles in [Formula: see text]He-B.
RESUMEN
We report on experiments performed within the Knudsen boundary layer of a low-pressure gas. The noninvasive probe we use is a suspended nanoelectromechanical string, which interacts with ^{4}He gas at cryogenic temperatures. When the pressure P is decreased, a reduction of the damping force below molecular friction âP had been first reported in Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 136101 (2014)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.113.136101 and never reproduced since. We demonstrate that this effect is independent of geometry, but dependent on temperature. Within the framework of kinetic theory, this reduction is interpreted as a rarefaction phenomenon, carried through the boundary layer by a deviation from the usual Maxwell-Boltzmann equilibrium distribution induced by surface scattering. Adsorbed atoms are shown to play a key role in the process, which explains why room temperature data fail to reproduce it.
RESUMEN
We report the observation of the unusual behavior of induction decay signals in antiferromagnetic monocrystals with Suhl-Nakamura interactions. The signals show the formation of the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of magnons and the existence of spin supercurrent, in complete analogy with the spin superfluidity in the superfluid (3)He and the atomic BEC of quantum gases. In the experiments described here, the temperature of the magnon BEC is a thousand times larger than in the superfluid (3)He. It opens a possibility to apply the spin supercurrent for various magnetic spintronics applications.