Rotating 3He droplets

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments, we study normal-phase rotating ³He droplets within density functional theory in a semi-classical approach. The sequence of rotating droplet shapes as a function of angular momentum is found to agree with that of rotating classical droplets, evolving from axisymmetric oblate to triaxial prolate to two-lobed shapes as the angular momentum of the droplet increases. Our results, which are obtained for droplets of nanoscopic size, are rescaled to the mesoscopic size characterizing ongoing experimental measurements, allowing for a direct comparison of shapes. The stability curve in the angular velocity-angular momentum plane shows small deviations from the classical rotating drop model predictions, whose magnitude increases with angular momentum. We attribute these deviations to effects not included in the simplified classical model description of a rotating fluid held together by surface tension, i.e., to surface diffuseness, curvature, and finite compressibility, and to quantum effects associated with deformation of the ³He Fermi surface. The influence of all these effects is expected to diminish as the droplet size increases, making the classical rotating droplet model a quite accurate representation of ³He rotation.