Spontaneous helical order of a chiral p-wave superfluid confined in nano-scale channels

Abstract: Strong interactions that favor chiral p-wave pairing, combined with strong pair breaking by confining boundaries, are shown to lead to new equilibrium states with different broken symmetries. Based on a strong-coupling Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory that accurately accounts for the thermodynamics and phase diagram of the bulk phases of superfluid $^3$He, we predict new phases of superfluid $^3$He for confined geometries that spontaneously break rotational and translational symmetry in combination with parity and time-reversal symmetry. One of the newly predicted phases exhibits a unique combination of chiral and helical order that is energetically stable in cylindrical channels of radius approaching the Cooper pair coherence length, e.g. $R\sim 100\,\mbox{nm}$. Precise numerical mimimization of the GL free energy yields a broad region of stability of the helical phase as a function of pressure and temperature, in addition to three translationally invariant phases with distinct broken spin- and orbital rotation symmetries. The helical phase is stable at both high and low pressures and favored by boundaries with strong pair-breaking. We present calculations of transverse NMR frequency shifts as functions of rf pulse tipping angle, magnetic field orientation, and temperature as signatures of these broken symmetry phases.