Zero-point motion of liquid and solid hydrogen

We present an inelastic neutron scattering study of liquid and solid hydrogen carried out using the wide Angular Range Chopper Spectrometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From the observed dynamic structure factor, we obtained empirical estimates of the molecular mean-squared displacement and ave...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2023-03, Vol.107 (9), Article 094511
Main Authors: Prisk, T. R., Azuah, R. T., Abernathy, D. L., Granroth, G. E., Sherline, T. E., Sokol, P. E., Hu, J., Boninsegni, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
inelastic neutron scattering
path-integral Monte Carlo
quantum fluids & solids
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Summary:We present an inelastic neutron scattering study of liquid and solid hydrogen carried out using the wide Angular Range Chopper Spectrometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From the observed dynamic structure factor, we obtained empirical estimates of the molecular mean-squared displacement and average translational kinetic energy. Here we find that the former quantity increases with temperature, indicating that a combination of thermal and quantum effects is important near the liquid-solid phase transition, contrary to previous measurements. We also find that the kinetic energy drops dramatically on melting of the crystals, a consequence of the large increase in molar volume together with the Heisenberg indeterminacy principle. Our results are compared with quantum Monte Carlo simulations based on different model potentials. In general, there is good agreement between our findings and theoretical predictions based on the Silvera-Goldman and Buck potentials.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.107.094511