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Grain boundary surface melting and quantum impurities in solid $^4$He

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Abstract Book of the XXIII IUPAP International Conference on Statistical Physics, Genova, Italy, (9-13 July 2007)

Abstract

We employ a quantum generalization of the self-consistent harmonic approximation to investigate the role of grain boundaries and of $^3$He impurities in solid $^4$He. We show that, under the experimental circumstances, surfaces melting and quantum lattice fluctuations make grain boundaries and $^3$He impurities always unstable against formation of $^4$He liquid phases. We show also that the anomalous dependence of the critical temperature and of the magnitude of the non classical rotational inertia is compatible with a simple model where $^3$He impurities rule the size of the grain boundaries.

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