Phase diagram and crystal melting of helium-4 in two dimensions

Abstract: We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of two-dimensional helium-4 using neural quantum states. Our variational description allows us to address liquid and solid phases using the same functional form as well as exploring possible melting scenarios, for instance via an intermediate hexatic phase. Notably, this is achieved by performing fixed pressure variational Monte Carlo calculations. Within the isobaric ensemble framework, we are able to clearly identify the first-order liquid-solid phase transition. However, in an intermediate region of nearly constant pressure, we find that simulations of $N=30$ atoms continuously transition from liquid to solid, with signatures of a hexatic order coexisting with a small condensate fraction. Calculations for larger systems follow the metastable liquid and solid branches in this transient region. We additionally compute the R\'enyi-2 entanglement entropy across the liquid-solid phase transition and find a sharp decrease upon freezing.