Jump to ContentJump to Main Navigation

Chapter

Microscopic Physics

VOLOVIK GRIGORY E.

in The Universe in a Helium Droplet

Published in print February 2009 | ISBN: 9780199564842
Published online January 2010 | e-ISBN: 9780191709906 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564842.003.0007

Series: International Series of Monographs on Physics

Microscopic Physics

Preview

This chapter deals with the Fermi systems, where the low-energy effective theory involves both bosonic and fermionic fields. Above the phase transition to the superconducting or superfluid state, the overwhelming majority of systems consisting of fermionic particles (electrons in metals, neutrons in neutron stars, 3He atoms in 3He liquid, etc.) form a so-called Fermi liquid. Below transition new types of fermionic vacua emerge. This chapter discusses the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory for spin-triplet superfluids, which provide examples of different universality classes of fermionic vacua: fully gapped vacua, vacua with stable and marginal point nodes — Fermi points, and vacua with nodal lines — Fermi lines. It also discusses emergent ‘relativistic’ quasiparticles, fundamental constants and hierarchy of Planck energy scales in fermionic systems, problem of vacuum energy and cosmological term in bi-metric gravity, and mass generation for Standard Model fermions.

Keywords: Fermi liquids; superfluids; Fermi gas; vacuum energy; fermions; liquid helium; Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory; cosmological term; bi-metric gravity; quasiparticles

Chapter.  7635 words.  Illustrated.

Subjects: condensed matter physics

Go to Oxford Scholarship Online » abstract

full text: subscription required

How to subscribe Recommend to my Librarian

Buy this work at Oxford University Press »