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Results for “Vortices in superfluids”

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NASA NTRS2001

Nucleation of Quantized Vortices from Rotating Superfluid Drops

The long-term goal of this project is to study the nucleation of quantized vortices in helium II by investigating the behavior of rotating droplets of helium II in a reduced gravity environment. The objective of this ground-based research grant was to develop new experimental techniques to aid in accomplishing that goal. The development of an electrostatic levitator for superfluid helium, described below, and the successful suspension of charged superfluid drops in modest electric fields was the primary focus of this work. Other key technologies of general low temperature use were developed and are also discussed.

Donnelly, Russell J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Superfluid-like turbulence in cosmology

A network of vortices in a superfluid system exhibits turbulent behavior. It is argued that the universe may have experienced such a phase of superfluid-like turbulence due to the existence of a coherent state with non-topological charge and a network of global strings. The unique feature of a distribution of turbulent domains is that it can yield non-gravitationally induced large-scale coherent velocities. It may be difficult, however, to relate these velocities to the observed large-scale bulk motion.

Gradwohl, Ben-Ami↗

NASA NTRS1971

Physics of the neutron star

Neutron star models, discussing crystalline crust, particle superfluid properties, rotational vortices and relation to Crab Nebula pulsar

Cameron, A. G. W.↗

NASA NTRS1991

A cosmic superfluid phase

The universe may have undergone a superfluid-like phase during its evolution, resulting from the injection of nontopological charge into the spontaneously broken vacuum. In the presence of vortices this charge is identified with angular momentum. This leads to turbulent domains on the scale of the correlation length. By restoring the symmetry at low temperatures, the vortices dissociate and push the charges to the boundaries of these domains. The model can be scaled (phenomenologically) to very low energies, it can be incorporated in a late time phase transition and form large scale structure in the boundary layers of the correlation volumes. The novel feature of the model lies in the fact that the dark matter is endowed with coherent motion. The possibilities of identifying this flow around superfluid vortices with the observed large scale bulk motion is discussed. If this identification is possible, then the definite prediction can be made that a more extended map of peculiar velocities would have to reveal large scale circulations in the flow pattern.

Gradwohl, Ben-Ami↗

NASA NTRS1989

Vortex creep and the internal temperature of neutron stars - Linear and nonlinear response to a glitch

The dynamics of pinned superfluid in neutron stars is determined by the thermal 'creep' of vortices. Vortex creep can respond to changes in the rotation rate of the neutron star crust and provide the observed types of dynamical relaxation following pulsar glitches. It also gives rise to energy dissipation, which determines the thermal evolution of pulsars once the initial heat content has been radiated away. The different possible regimes of vortex creep are explored, and it is shown that the nature of the dynamical response of the pinned superfluid evolves with a pulsar's age. Younger pulsars display a linear regime, where the response is linear in the initial perturbation and is a simple exponential relaxation as a function of time. A nonliner response, with a characteristic nonlinear dependence on the initial perturbation, is responsible for energy dissipation and becomes the predominant mode of response as the pulsar ages. The transition from the linear to the nonlinear regime depends sensitively on the temperature of the neutron star interior. A preliminary review of existing postglitch observations is given within this general evolutionary framework.

Alpar, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Giant glitches and pinned vorticity in the Vela and other pulsars

Previously unexamined regularities in the Vela pulsar timing data are noted, and explained by a theory of giant glitches in the Vela and other pulsars as the dynamic consequence of catastrophic unpinning events in the pinned crustal neutron superfluid. Postglitch behavior then results from the glitch-induced vortex creep. An implication of the theory is that the energy release in this glitch scenario need not appear instantaneously on the surface as heat.

Alpar, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Nonlinear interactions in superfluid dynamics: Nonstationary heat transfer due to second sound shock waves

Second sound techniques were used to study superfluid helium. Second sound shock waves produced relative velocities in the bulk fluid. Maximum counterflow velocities produced in this way are found to follow the Langer-Fischer prediction for the fundamental critical velocity in its functional dependence on temperature and pressure. Comparison of successive shock and rotating experiments provides strong evidence that breakdown results in vorticity production in the flow behind the shock. Schlieren pictures have verified the planar nature of second sound shocks even after multiple reflections. The nonlinear theory of second sound was repeatedly verified in its prediction of double shocks and other nonlinear phenomena.

Liepmann, H. W.↗

NASA NTRS1995

(abstract) Production and Levitation of Free Drops of Liquid Helium

We are interested in the nucleation and behavior of quantized vorticies and surface excitations in free drops of superfluid helium. We have constructed an apparatus to maintain liquid helium drops isolated from any material container in the Earth's gravitational field, and have investigated two techniques for generating and introducing liquid drops into the region of confinement. The levitation apparatus utilizes the electrostatic force acting upon a charged liquid drop to counteract the gravitational force, with drop position stability provided by a static magnetic field acting upon the helium diamagnetic moment. Electrically neutral superfluid drops have been produced with a miniature thermomechanical pump; for a given configuration the liquid initial velocity has been varied up to several centimeters per second. Liquid drops carrying either net positive or negative charge are produced by an electrode which generates a flow of ionized liquid from the bulk liquid surface. Potentials of less than one thousand volts to several thousand volts are required. The mass flow is controlled by varying duration of the ionizing voltage pulse; drops as small as 30 micrometers diameter, charged to near the Rayleigh limit, have been observed.

quantized vorticity levitation liquid helium↗