  Femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy has been used to study vibrational
dynamics of potassium dimers attached to superfluid helium nanodroplets.
Comparing the measured data with theoretical results based on dissipative
quantum dynamics we propose that the most important effect of the helium
environment is a general damping of the vibrational dynamics as a result of the
interaction between dimer and collective degrees of freedom of the helium
droplet. The calculations allow us to explain crucial experimental findings
that are unobserved in gas-phase measurements. Remarkably, best agreement with
experiment is found for a model where we neglect damping once a wave packet
moves below a critical velocity. In this way the results provide first direct
evidence for the Landau critical velocity in superfluid nanodroplets.
