Superfluid fraction 2026-10-18
In the two-fluid model of superfluidity, the superfluid fraction is , where is the superfluid mass density and the total mass density. For a one-component fluid of particles of the same mass this also equals , using the superfluid number density and total number density . It measures the superfluid response and is distinct from the condensate fraction, which measures occupation of a single-particle state. Interactions can make the two fractions very different.
Universal stiffness jump Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-18
The renormalized phase stiffness has this discontinuity at the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition. The algebraic correlation function has exponent at the transition from the ordered side.
The stiffness here is an energy in two dimensions, not an areal mass density. For a neutral superfluid of particles of mass , let be the superfluid number density per unit area. Substituting the superfluid velocity into the kinetic energy gives . Consequently the jump can also be written
where is the thermal wavelength. It is the large-distance superfluid number density, rather than the total density or a locally inferred condensate density, that enters this relation.
Within the vortex-pair renormalization flow, changes from irrelevant to relevant at , with the large-distance dimensionless phase stiffness. Combining this with the spin wave result gives . Above the transition the homogeneous equilibrium phase stiffness vanishes at infinite observation scale. A discontinuous response coefficient is compatible with a diverging correlation length; it does not imply a latent heat.[ref]