The Generation of Turbulence by Oscillating Structures in Superfluid Helium at Very Low Temperatures

The paper is concerned with the interpretation of many experiments that have been reported recently on the production of quantum turbulence by oscillating spheres, wires and grids in both 4He and 3He-B at temperatures so low that there is a negligible fraction of normal fluid. The experimental results are compared with those obtained in analogous experiments with classical fluids and with preliminary simulations of the quantum turbulence. Particular attention is paid to observed values of drag coefficients and to the very different critical velocities observed in 4He and 3He. It is tentatively concluded that in the case of 4He behaviour may well be similar to that observed in the classical analogues, with relatively small changes when the characteristic size of the oscillating structure is not large compared with the quantized vortex spacing, but that in the case of 3He behaviour is very different and due perhaps to very rapid intrinsic nucleation of the quantized vortices.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Quantum Turbulence in a Trapped Bose-Einstein Condensate

We study quantum turbulence in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Combining rotations around two axes, we successfully induce quantum turbulent state in which quantized vortices are not crystallized but tangled. The obtained spectrum of the incompressible kinetic energy is consistent with the Kolmogorov law, the most important statistical law in turbulence.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Physical Review A 76, 045603 (2007

Thermal dissipation in quantum turbulence

The microscopic mechanism of thermal dissipation in quantum turbulence has been numerically studied by solving the coupled system involving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation. At low temperatures, the obtained dissipation does not work at scales greater than the vortex core size. However, as the temperature increases, dissipation works at large scales and it affects the vortex dynamics. We successfully obtained the mutual friction coefficients of the vortex dynamics as functions of temperature, which can be applied to the vortex dynamics in dilute Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to AP

Classical and quantum regimes of the superfluid turbulence

We argue that turbulence in superfluids is governed by two dimensionless parameters. One of them is the intrinsic parameter q which characterizes the friction forces acting on a vortex moving with respect to the heat bath, with 1/q playing the same role as the Reynolds number Re=UR/\nu in classical hydrodynamics. It marks the transition between the "laminar" and turbulent regimes of vortex dynamics. The developed turbulence described by Kolmogorov cascade occurs when Re >> 1 in classical hydrodynamics, and q << 1 in the superfluid hydrodynamics. Another parameter of the superfluid turbulence is the superfluid Reynolds number Re_s=UR/\kappa, which contains the circulation quantum \kappa characterizing quantized vorticity in superfluids. This parameter may regulate the crossover or transition between two classes of superfluid turbulence: (i) the classical regime of Kolmogorov cascade where vortices are locally polarized and the quantization of vorticity is not important; and (ii) the quantum Vinen turbulence whose properties are determined by the quantization of vorticity. The phase diagram of the dynamical vortex states is suggested.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, version accepted in JETP Letter

Decay of Counterflow Quantum Turbulence in Superfluid ^4He

We have simulated the decay of thermal counterflow quantum turbulence from a statistically steady state at T=1.9[K], with the assumption that the normal fluid is at rest during the decay. The results are consistent with the predictions of the Vinen equation (in essence the vortex line density (VLD) decays as t^{-1}). For the statistically steady state, we determine the parameter c_2, which connects the curvature of the vortex lines and the mean separation of vortices. A formula connecting the parameter \chi_2 of the Vinen equation with c_2 is shown to agree with the results of the simulations. Disagreement with experiment is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Specific heat of the Kelvin modes in low temperature superfluid turbulence

It is pointed out that the specific heat of helical vortex line excitations, in low temperature superfluid turbulence experiments carried out in helium II, can be of the same order as the specific heat of the phononic quasiparticles. The ratio of Kelvin mode and phonon specific heats scales with L_0 T^{-5/2}, where L_0 represents the smoothed line length per volume within the vortex tangle, such that the contribution of the vortex mode specific heat should be observable for L_0 = 10^6-10^8 cm^{-2}, and at temperatures which are of order 1-10 mK.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur