Polarization of superfluid turbulence

We show that normal fluid eddies in turbulent helium II polarize the tangle of quantized vortex lines present in the flow, thus inducing superfluid vorticity patterns similar to the driving normal fluid eddies. We also show that the polarization is effective over the entire inertial range. The results help explain the surprising analogies between classical and superfluid turbulence which have been observed recently.Comment: 3 figure

Transition from Ekman flow to Taylor vortex flow in superfluid helium

By numerically computing the steady axisymmetric flow of helium II confined inside a finite aspect ratio Couette annulus, we determine the transition from Ekman flow to Taylor vortex flow as a function of temperature and aspect ratio.We find that the low-Reynolds number flow is quite different to that of a classical fluid, particularly at lower temperatures.At high aspect ratio our results confirm the existing linear stability theory of the onset of Taylor vortices, which assumes infinitely long cylinders.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures; submitte

Ballistic propagation of thermal excitations near a vortex in superfluid He3-B

Andreev scattering of thermal excitations is a powerful tool for studying quantized vortices and turbulence in superfluid He3-B at very low temperatures. We write Hamilton's equations for a quasiparticle in the presence of a vortex line, determine its trajectory, and find under wich conditions it is Andreev reflected. To make contact with experiments, we generalize our results to the Onsager vortex gas, and find values of the intervortex spacing in agreement with less rigorous estimates

Cross-sections of Andreev scattering by quantized vortex rings in 3He-B

We studied numerically the Andreev scattering cross-sections of three-dimensional isolated quantized vortex rings in superfluid 3He-B at ultra-low temperatures. We calculated the dependence of the cross-section on the ring's size and on the angle between the beam of incident thermal quasiparticle excitations and the direction of the ring's motion. We also introduced, and investigated numerically, the cross-section averaged over all possible orientations of the vortex ring; such a cross-section may be particularly relevant for the analysis of experimental data. We also analyzed the role of screening effects for Andreev reflection of quasiparticles by systems of vortex rings. Using the results obtained for isolated rings we found that the screening factor for a system of unlinked rings depends strongly on the average radius of the vortex ring, and that the screening effects increase with decreasing the rings' size.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures ; submitted to Physical Review