Observation of first and second sound in a BKT superfluid

First and second sound are experimentally observed in a two-dimensional superfluid, and the temperature-dependent sound speeds reveal the predicted jump in the superfluid density at the infinite-order Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Superfluidity in its various forms has been of interest since the observation of frictionless flow in liquid helium II1,2. In three spatial dimensions it is conceptually associated with the emergence of long-range order at a critical temperature. One of the hallmarks of superfluidity, as predicted by the two-fluid model(3,4) and observed in both liquid helium(5) and in ultracold atomic gases(6,7), is the existence of two kinds of sound excitation-the first and second sound. In two-dimensional systems, thermal fluctuations preclude long-range order(8,9); however, superfluidity nevertheless emerges at a non-zero critical temperature through the infinite-order Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition(10,11), which is associated with a universal jump(12) in the superfluid density without any discontinuities in the thermodynamic properties of the fluid. BKT superfluids are also predicted to support two sounds, but so far this has not been observed experimentally. Here we observe first and second sound in a homogeneous two-dimensional atomic Bose gas, and use the two temperature-dependent sound speeds to determine the superfluid density of the gas(13-16). Our results agree with the predictions of BKT theory, including the prediction of a universal jump in the superfluid density at the critical temperature.

Automated summary

The observation of first and second sound in a two-dimensional superfluid confirms the predicted jump in the superfluid density at the infinite-order Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The study also shows agreement with BKT theory, including the universal jump in superfluid density at the critical temperature.