Physics Letters A 171 (1992) 435—437 PHYSICS LETTERS A

North-Holland

Phenomenological approach to the phase diagram of liquid helium

K.K. Singh
Department of Physics andAstrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India

Received 9 July 1992; accepted for publication 24 September 1992

Communicated by AR. Bishop

It is shown that a two order parameter phenomenological theory can account for some essential features ofthe phase diagram
4He.
of liquid

Although considerable advances have taken place croscopic theory. The aim of this Letter is to report
in recent years in the study of an assembly of inter- a two order parameter description of the system
acting bosons including applications of renormali- which shows how a X line dividing the liquid phase
zation group methods [1—4],they have not contrib- and terminating on the liquid—vapor coexistence
uted much to our understanding of the phase diagram curve can arise.
of liquid 4He. As a matter of fact an important fea- Our starting point is the following expression for
ture of the diagram [5] namely, that in the P—Tplane the free energy (Gibb’s potential per particle mul-
the A point marks the end point of two coexistence tiplied with the critical density n~)of the system,
lines (the superfluid—vapor and the normal fluid—
vaporlines) besides being the origin of the A line has ø=øo h(p, t)ii+a 2+a 4+c 2
remained unexplained. The reason for this inade- 2tii 4ii 2(p, l)m
quacy of the theories perhaps is that whereas it is easy +c 4 a17m2,
— (1)
to introduce into the theory [6] in a fundamental 4m
manner an order parameter corresponding to the where (p, I) denote pressure and temperature mea-
normal fluid—superfluid transition, it has not been sured from the critical point (Pa, Ta), ii = (n’ n~)/—

possible so far to introduce an appropriate descrip- 11~m2 = M2/n~and h =p bt. The quantities n’ and
—

tion of the liquid—vapor transition. Among earlier
attempts to explain the phase diagram of liquid he-
hum, mention may be made of the work by Zilsel
[7] who showed that a pseudospin model of hard
sphere bosons with attractive interactions analyzed
within the molecular field approximation did not
yield a Aunless
stability line outside
the free the region
energy was of liquid—vaporwith
supplemented in-
other suitable terms.
In view of the difficulties of microscopic theories
to deal with the problem, it seems in order to try to
gain an understanding of the essential features of the
phase diagram of liquid helium in terms of a Landau
type phenomenological approach. Such an exercise
may be expected to bring into sharper focus the is-
sues which should eventually be addressed by a mi-
M2 denote, respectively, the density of particles out-
side the Bose condensate and that of particles in the
condensate; b, a
2, a4 and c4 are positive constants,
and c2(p, t) and a will be specified as we proceed.
The first four terms in (1) correspond to an expan-
sion of the free energy [8] about the critical point in2
powers
and m4 ofarethe order
those parameter
typically usedii.for
Thetheterms in m
description
of a continuous second order transition. The last term
in (1) has been introduced as a coupling of the two
order parameters. It is motivated by the considera-
tion that in the ordered phase the total density is
n’ + M2. We consider temperatures less than T~so
that t <0.
Minimization of 0 with respect to (ii~m) gives the
equilibrium conditions

0375-9601/92/S 05.00 © 1992 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved. 435
Volume 171, number 5,6 PHYSICS LETTERS A 14 December 1992

where. It shows that there exists only one solution

—h+2a2hii+4a4ii3—am2=0, (2) ~> 0 which satisfies the stability condition (5).
2m (c 2) = 0, (3) Hence a stable liquid phase with rn-ordering exists.
2 aii + 2c4 m
— The A line, defined as the boundary on which rn—~0.
and the stability conditions
coincides with the line of instability of the normal
— a 2>0’ (4) liquid referred to above. For small values of h and
2 t~+ 6a4 p m2, the liquid phase solution has the form
(—a
2ItI +6a4ii
2)(c
2 —aii+6c4rn
2)>a2rn2
The normal phase corresponds to the solution m=0
. (5)
ii=flo+
h+am2
411 —
( 9a~
2a
1/2
2)2+....
of eq. (3) and, in general, three solutions ~ of the 21t1) (h+cxm
cubic (2) when rn is 0. The stability condition (4) (8)
in this case requires I iii > a where a stands for Eliminating i~between eqs. (7) and (8) gives
~,/a
2I t~312
/6a4. A graphical
I <I construction
two stable solutions shows
exist, that for
a high 2c~rn2= — c
h/8a4a 2 +a + ah/4a2 It (9)
density (liquid) solution ii>a and a low density where
(gas) solution ii< —a. For h> 0 the liquid phase is 2/8c
the more stable one while for h<0 the gas phase is c~=c4(l—a 4a2ltJ) . (10)
more stable. The two phases coexist along the line
The A line is given by
h=0 with j= ±iio(t)where ~ For the nor-
mal phase, condition (5) reduces to c2(p, t)—a,j>O c2(p, t)=a /i~+ah/4a2 Ill . (11)
which is essentially the condition for stability against
Its intersection with the normal coexistence line is
fluctuations of the order parameter rn. In the p—i
defined to be the A point (px, t~)with t~given by
plane we imagine the neighborhood of the coexist-
ence line to be divided into two regions A and B by C2(px =bt~,t~)=ct.~,/3a(tx) . (12)
the line c2(p, 1) =0, A denoting the region with c2(p,
t)>0 and B with c2(p, t)<0. Then, for a>0, the Iiq- In the spirit of the Landau theory, we next assume
that near (p~,tx), c2 can be expanded as
uid phase satisfies the rn-stability condition in the
part of region A bounded by the line c2(p, t)=c2(p~.,t~)+y(p—p~)+fi(t—t~) (13) ,

2 can then
c2(p,l)—cx1i—~+0. (6) where y, /3 are constants. The quantity m
On the negative side of this line (i.e. c
—2 aii < 0) the be written
2= Yx
—as [(P —p
liquid phase is unstable. The gas phase for a>0 is 2c~m 2) — s~
(I— tx)] , (14)
stable in region A but has a line of instability in the
region B. For a<0, the liquid phase has a line of in- where sx= —fi~/y~ denotes the slope of the A line and
stability in the region B but the gas phase is unstable ctb aii0 (ti)
in the whole of this region and a part of region A. It fi~=J3+ 4a2Itx I + (15)
follows that in order to get a phase diagram corre-
sponding to that of liquid helium, we must choose y~= y— a/4a2 I I , (16)
a>0 and restrict c2(p, t) to positive values.
c4c4(1a/8c4a21t2j) . (17)
To investigate ordered phase solutions (m ~ 0), eq. 2 The condition of stability (5) implies that the or-
and can
(2) thenbecombined
solved as awith
cubiceq.in ii(3)
in terms
whichoffor
h+rnarn
~0 dered phase solutions ii in the neighborhood of iio are
reads stable provided a2/8c
4a211A1 <1. with
2 increases Equation (14)
decrease of
2c 2=aii—c shows that at p =PA, rn 2 decreases
4rn 2. (7)
For a, c temperature if fix>O. Also at a fixed t, rn
2 both positive, only the liquid phase solu- with increase of pressure if y,~>0. The A line under
tions (,~i>0) can satisfy this equation. Analysis of these conditions will have a negative slope S~. At
the solutions of the cubic will be presented else- points below the A line the liquid will be in the or-

436
Volume 171, number 5,6 PHYSICS LETFERS A 14 December 1992

dered phase while above the line it will be in the nor-

mal phase. This is in accord with the phase diagram a~0)~ =
2c~ I)
y~(b+Imx
of liquid helium.
The coexistence line between the “ordered” liquid X [1+ i~( t,j] (1 + a/4a2 I I), (21)
phase and the “normal” gas phase at temperatures
below t~is determined by the difference Ø~—Ø~ofthe c~°~ =
— ~ ~ I mx I) , (22)
free energies of the ordered 2c~
4, the liquid
result phase andtothe
is found be gas the superscripts (o) and (n) denoting, respectively,
phase. Up to order m the ordered and normal liquid phases. For liquid he-
— = 2h ~ + c’~m4, (18) hum both these quantities are singular. It is, how-
ever, a well recognized fact now that singular be-
which shows that on the normal coexistence line havior of thermodynamic quantitiesat a critical point
(h = 0) the ordered liquid phase is favored. Substi- is associated with fluctuations of ordered parameters
tution for m2 from (14) into (18) yields the coex- which are ignored in Landau type theories.
istence line

(19)
~ (20)
The coexistence line below t. is thus a continuation
of the normal coexistence line but lies slightly lower
than the normal coexistence line.
Equation (19) enables determination of coeffi-
cient of expansion a
5 and the specific heat per par-
tide c5 along the coexistence line. We find that both
the quantities are discontinuous at the A point, the
magnitudes of the discontinuities being
References
[1] R.J. Creswick andF.W. Wiegel, Phys. Rev. A 28 (1983) 1579.
[2]K.K. Singh, Phys. Rev. B 12 (1975) 2819; 17 (1978) 324.
[3]K. Walasek, Phys. Leti. A 101(1984) 343.
[4] P.B. Weichman, M. Rasolt, M.E. Fisher and M.J. Stephen,
Phys. Rev. B 33 (1986) 4632.
[5] W.E. Keller, Helium-3 and helium-4 (Plenum, New York,
1969).
[6]N.N. Bogolubov, Physica 26 Suppl. (1960)1.
[7] P.R. Zilsel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 15 (1965) 476.
[81L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz, Statistical physics
(Pergamon, Oxford, 1980) ch. 14.

437