Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.
(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)
Superfluid helium films on multiply-connected surfaces: Phase flows and phase transitions
Abstract
The equilibrium statistical behavior of phase flows on surfaces of complicated topology is studied. Both classical tools developed in the theory of Riemann surfaces and numerical methods associated with discrete mathematics (graph theory) are applied to the characterization of the equilibrium statistical behavior of systems with U(1) symmetry on two-dimensional manifolds. The relation between a surface's topology and physical parameters such as the superfluid density, vortex core shape and boundary effects is investigated. The effect of quantization is traced through the characterization of states via the Hodge decomposition and in the partition function. It is shown that for surfaces of an appropriate shape a new type of Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is possible. This situation is novel because quantized vortices are required only for ergodicity and the disordering of the superfluid/normal phase transition is by fluctuations in the nonsingular harmonic flows.
Subject Area
Plasma physics
Recommended Citation
Reinhold, Bruce Bennett, "Superfluid helium films on multiply-connected surfaces: Phase flows and phase transitions" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9233142.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9233142