Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of AB interface in superfluid 3He

The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is well-known in classical hydrodynamics, where it explains the sudden emergence of interfacial surface waves as a function of the velocity of flow parallel to the interface. It can be carried over to the inviscid two-fluid dynamics of superfluids, to study different types of interfaces and phase boundaries in quantum fluids. We report measurements on the stability of the phase boundary separating the two bulk phases of superfluid 3He in rotating flow, while the boundary is localized with the gradient of the magnetic field to a position perpendicular to the rotation axis. The results demonstrate that the classic stability condition, when modified for the superfluid environment, is obeyed down to 0.4 Tc, if a large fraction of the magnetic polarization of the B-phase is attributed to a parabolic reduction of the interfacial surface tension with increasing magnetic field.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure

Measurement of Turbulence in Superfluid 3He-B

The experimental investigation of superfluid turbulence in 3He-B is generally not possible with the techniques which have been developed for 4He-II. We describe a new method by which a transient burst of turbulent vortex expansion can be generated in 3He-B. It is based on the injection of a few vortex loops into rotating vortex-free flow. The time-dependent evolution of the quantized vorticity is then monitored with NMR spectroscopy. Using these techniques the transition between regular (i.e. vortex number conserving) and turbulent vortex dynamics can be recorded at T ~ 0.6 Tc and a number of other characteristics of turbulence can be followed down to a temperature of T ~ 0.4 Tc.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figure

Dynamic Remanent Vortices in Superfluid 3He-B

We investigate the decay of vortices in a rotating cylindrical sample of 3He-B, after rotation has been stopped. With decreasing temperature vortex annihilation slows down as the damping in vortex motion, the mutual friction dissipation \alpha(T), decreases almost exponentially. Remanent vortices then survive for increasingly long periods, while they move towards annihilation in zero applied flow. After a waiting period \Delta t at zero flow, rotation is reapplied and the remnants evolve to rectilinear vortices. By counting these lines, we measure at temperatures above the transition to turbulence ~0.6T_c the number of remnants as a function of \alpha(T) and \Delta t. At temperatures below the transition to turbulence T \lesssim 0.55 T_c, remnants expanding in applied flow become unstable and generate in a turbulent burst the equilibrium number of vortices. Here we measure the onset temperature T_on of turbulence as a function of \Delta t, applied flow velocity, and length of sample L.Comment: Submitted to the proceedings of the Quantum Fluids and Solids Conference 2006 (to be published in Journal of Low Temperature Physics 2007) New data are adde

Onset of turbulence in superfluid 3He-B and its dependence on vortex injection in applied flow

Vortex dynamics in 3He-B is divided by the temperature dependent damping into a high-temperature regime, where the number of vortices is conserved, and a low-temperature regime, where rapid vortex multiplication takes place in a turbulent burst. We investigate experimentally the hydrodynamic transition between these two regimes by injecting seed vortex loops into vortex-free rotating flow. The onset temperature of turbulence is dominated by the roughly exponential temperature dependence of vortex friction, but its exact value is found to depend on the injection method.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics - LT24, in Conference Proceedings of the American Institute of Physic