Superclimb of Dislocations and the Anomalous Isochoric Compressibility of Solid He4

Abstract

In the experiment on superfluid transport in solid He4 [PRL {\bf 100}, 235301 (2008)], Ray and Hallock observed an {\it anomalously large isochoric compressibility}: the supersolid samples demonstrated a significant and apparently spatially uniform response of density and pressure to chemical potential, applied locally through Vycor "electrodes". We propose that the effect is due to {\it superclimb} : edge dislocations can climb because of mass transport along superfluid cores. We corroborate the scenario by {\it ab initio} simulations of an edge dislocation in solid He4 at $T=0.5K$. We argue that at low temperature the effect must be suppressed due to a crossover to the smooth dislocation.