Velocity-Dependent Forces and Non-Hydrodynamic Initial Conditions in Quantum and Classical Fluids

We consider a fermionic fluid in a non-equilibrium steady state where the fluctuation-dissipation theorem is not valid and fields conjugate to the hydrodynamic variables are explicitly required to determine response functions. We identify velocity-dependent forces in the kinetic equation that are equivalent to such fields. They lead to driving terms in the hydrodynamic equations and to corrections to the hydrodynamic initial conditions.Comment: 8p

Quantum hydrodynamics

Quantum hydrodynamics in superfluid helium and atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) has been recently one of the most important topics in low temperature physics. In these systems, a macroscopic wave function appears because of Bose-Einstein condensation, which creates quantized vortices. Turbulence consisting of quantized vortices is called quantum turbulence (QT). The study of quantized vortices and QT has increased in intensity for two reasons. The first is that recent studies of QT are considerably advanced over older studies, which were chiefly limited to thermal counterflow in 4He, which has no analogue with classical traditional turbulence, whereas new studies on QT are focused on a comparison between QT and classical turbulence. The second reason is the realization of atomic BECs in 1995, for which modern optical techniques enable the direct control and visualization of the condensate and can even change the interaction; such direct control is impossible in other quantum condensates like superfluid helium and superconductors. Our group has made many important theoretical and numerical contributions to the field of quantum hydrodynamics of both superfluid helium and atomic BECs. In this article, we review some of the important topics in detail. The topics of quantum hydrodynamics are diverse, so we have not attempted to cover all these topics in this article. We also ensure that the scope of this article does not overlap with our recent review article (arXiv:1004.5458), "Quantized vortices in superfluid helium and atomic Bose--Einstein condensates", and other review articles.Comment: 102 pages, 29 figures, 1 tabl

Weakly nonlocal fluid mechanics - the Schrodinger equation

A weakly nonlocal extension of ideal fluid dynamics is derived from the Second Law of thermodynamics. It is proved that in the reversible limit the additional pressure term can be derived from a potential. The requirement of the additivity of the specific entropy function determines the quantum potential uniquely. The relation to other known derivations of Schr\"odinger equation (stochastic, Fisher information, exact uncertainty) is clarified.Comment: major extension and revisio

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in an atomic superfluid

We demonstrate an experimentally feasible method for generating the classical Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a single component atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. By progressively reducing a potential barrier between two counter-flowing channels we seed a line of quantised vortices, which precede to form progressively larger clusters, mimicking the classical roll-up behaviour of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. This cluster formation leads to an effective superfluid shear layer, formed through the collective motion of many quantised vortices. From this we demonstrate a straightforward method to measure the effective viscosity of a turbulent quantum fluid in a system with a moderate number of vortices, within the range of current experimental capabilities.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Nonlinear aspects of quantum plasma physics

Dense quantum plasmas are ubiquitous in planetary interiors and in compact astrophysical objects, in semiconductors and micro-mechanical systems, as well as in the next generation intense laser-solid density plasma interaction experiments and in quantum x-ray free-electron lasers. In contrast to classical plasmas, one encounters extremely high plasma number density and low temperature in quantum plasmas. The latter are composed of electrons, positrons and holes, which are degenerate. Positrons (holes) have the same (slightly different) mass as electrons, but opposite charge. The degenerate charged particles (electrons, positrons, holes) follow the Fermi-Dirac statistics. In quantum plasmas, there are new forces associated with i) quantum statistical electron and positron pressures, ii) electron and positron tunneling through the Bohm potential, and iii) electron and positron angular momentum spin. Inclusion of these quantum forces provides possibility of very high-frequency dispersive electrostatic and electromagnetic waves (e.g. in the hard x-ray and gamma rays regimes) having extremely short wavelengths. In this review paper, we present theoretical backgrounds for some important nonlinear aspects of wave-wave and wave-electron interactions in dense quantum plasmas. Specifically, we shall focus on nonlinear electrostatic electron and ion plasma waves, novel aspects of 3D quantum electron fluid turbulence, as well as nonlinearly coupled intense electromagnetic waves and localized plasma wave structures. Also discussed are the phase space kinetic structures and mechanisms that can generate quasi-stationary magnetic fields in dense quantum plasmas. The influence of the external magnetic field and the electron angular momentum spin on the electromagnetic wave dynamics is discussed.Comment: 42 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in Physics-Uspekh

Quantum Mechanics with Trajectories: Quantum Trajectories and Adaptive Grids

Although the foundations of the hydrodynamical formulation of quantum mechanics were laid over 50 years ago, it has only been within the past few years that viable computational implementations have been developed. One approach to solving the hydrodynamic equations uses quantum trajectories as the computational tool. The trajectory equations of motion are described and methods for implementation are discussed, including fitting of the fields to gaussian clusters.Comment: Prepared for CiSE, Computing in Science and Engineering IEEE/AIP special issue on computational chemistr

Vortex dynamics in superfluids governed by an interacting gauge theory

We study the dynamics of a vortex in a quasi two-dimensional Bose gas consisting of light matter coupled atoms forming two-component pseudo spins. The gas is subject to a density dependent gauge potential, hence governed by an interacting gauge theory, which stems from a collisionally induced detuning between the incident laser frequency and the atomic energy levels. This provides a back-action between the synthetic gauge potential and the matter field. A Lagrangian approach is used to derive an expression for the force acting on a vortex in such a gas. We discuss the similarities between this force and the one predicted by Iordanskii, Lifshitz and Pitaevskii when scattering between a superfluid vortex and the thermal component is taken into account.Comment: 9 pages. Comments are welcom