Bose-Einstein condensation in a decorated lattice: an application to the problem of supersolid He

The Bose-Einstein condensation of vacancies in a three-dimensional decorated lattice is considered. The model describes possible scenario of superfluidity of solid helium, caused by the presence of zero-point vacancies in a dislocation network. It is shown that the temperature of Bose-Einstein condensation decreases under increase of the length of the network segments, and the law of decrease depends essentially on the properties of the vertices of the network. If the vertices correspond to barriers with a small transparency, the critical temperature varies inversely as the square of the length of the segment. On the contrary, if the vertices correspond to traps for the vacancies (it is energetically preferable for the vacancies to be localized at the vertices), an exponential lowering of the temperature of transition takes place. The highest temperature of Bose-Einstein condensation is reached in the intermediate case of vertices with large transparency, but in the absence of tendency of localization at them. In the latter case the critical temperature is inversely as the length of the segment. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.