Luca V. Delacrétaz, Diego M. Hofman, Grégoire Mathys
SciPost Phys. 8, 047 (2020) ·
published 26 March 2020
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· pdf
We recast superfluid hydrodynamics as the hydrodynamic theory of a system
with an emergent anomalous higher-form symmetry. The higher-form charge counts
the winding planes of the superfluid — its constitutive relation replaces the
Josephson relation of conventional superfluid hydrodynamics. This formulation
puts all hydrodynamic equations on equal footing. The anomalous Ward identity
can be used as an alternative starting point to prove the existence of a
Goldstone boson, without reference to spontaneous symmetry breaking. This
provides an alternative characterization of Landau phase transitions in terms
of higher-form symmetries and their anomalies instead of how the symmetries are
realized. This treatment is more general and, in particular, includes the case
of BKT transitions. As an application of this formalism we construct the
hydrodynamic theories of conventional (0-form) and 1-form superfluids.
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