Quantum Criticality and the Alpha/Delta Puzzle

In this paper we suggest a novel explanation for the alpha-delta transition in plutonium based on an analogy between the evolution of the actinide ground state as a function of spin orbit coupling and the behaviour of thin film superconductors in a magnetic field. The key point is that in metals with a low carrier density spin-orbit interactions give rise to low energy monopole-like solitons with quantized spin currents, which play much the same role as Abrikosov vortices in thin film superconductors. In alpha-plutonium these solitons form an ordered solid, while in impurity stabilized delta-plutonium they form a pair condensate.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Transition from Quantum to Classical Information in a Superfluid

Whereas the entropy of any deterministic classical system described by a principle of least action is zero, one can assign a "quantum information" to quantum mechanical degree of freedom equal to Hausdorff area of the deviation from a classical path. This raises the question whether superfluids carry quantum information. We show that in general the transition from the classical to quantum behavior depends on the probing length scale, and occurs for microscopic length scales, except when the interactions between the particles are very weak. This transition explains why, on macroscopic length scales, physics is described by classical equations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure