Superfluid helium II as the QCD vacuum

Abstract

We study the winding number susceptibility < I^2> in a superfluid system and the topological susceptibility < Q^2> in QCD. We argue that both correlation functions exhibit similar structures, including the generation of the contact terms. We discuss the nature of the contact term in superfluid system and argue that it has exactly the same origin as in QCD, and it is related to the long distance physics which cannot be associated with conventional microscopical degrees of freedom such as phonons and rotons. We emphasize that the conceptual similarities between superfluid system and QCD may lead, hopefully, to a deeper understanding of the topological features of a superfluid system as well as the QCD vacuum.