Dynamic structure factor of liquid He 4 across the normal-superfluid transition

Abstract

We have carried out a microscopic study of the dynamic structure factor of liquid He4 across the normal-superfluid transition temperature using the path integral Monte Carlo method. The ill-posed problem of the inverse Laplace transform, from the imaginary-time intermediate scattering function to the dynamic response, is tackled by stochastic optimization. Our results show a quasiparticle peak and a small and broad multiphonon contribution. In spite of the lack of strength in the collective peaks, we clearly identify the rapid dropping of the roton peak amplitude when crossing the transition temperature T¿. Other properties such as the static structure factor, static response, and one-phonon contribution to the response are also calculated at different temperatures. The changes of the phonon-roton spectrum with the temperature are also studied. An overall agreement with available experimental data is achieved.