Non-thermodynamic nature of the orbital angular momentum in neutral fermionic superfluids

Abstract

We discuss the orbital angular momentum (OAM) and the edge mass current in neutral fermionic superfluids with broken time reversal symmetry. Recent mean field studies imply that total OAM of a uniform superfluid depends on boundary conditions and is not a thermodynamic quantity. We point out that this does not conflict with thermodynamics, because there is no intensive external field conjugate to OAM with which a uniform superfluid is stable in the thermodynamic limit, in sharp contrast to the orbital magnetization in a non-superfluid system. We establish a simple physical picture for the sensitivity of OAM to boundaries by introducing the notion of "unpaired fermions" and "fermionic Landau criterion" within a mean field description. In order to go beyond the mean field approximation, we perform a density matrix renormalization group calculation and conclude that the mean field understanding is essentially correct.