Critical velocities in superfluids and the nucleation of vortices

Abstract

The problem of critical velocities in superfluids, that is the comprehension of superfluidity breakdown by flow, has been long standing. One difficulty stems from the existence of several breakdown mechanisms. A major advance has come from the observation of single $2\pi$ phase slips, which arise from the nucleation of quantised vortices, that is, their creation {\it ex nihilo}. The statistical properties of the nucleation process in both the thermal regime and the quantum regime are identified and analysed: vortex nucleation provides a well-documented case of macroscopic quantum tunnelling (MQT). In particular, a close scrutiny of the experimental data obtained on ultra-pure ${}^4$He reveals the influence of damping on tunnelling, a rare occurrence where the effect of the environment on MQT can be studied.

arXiv comment33 pages, 16 figures, review paper submitted to C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris)

References in corpus (4)

• Stationary states of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate: routes to vortex nucleation
• Dynamics of vortex tangle without mutual friction in superfluid ${}^4$He
• Thermodynamics of Superfluidity
• Tunnelling of topological line defects in strongly coupled superfluids

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Vortex-Induced Phase Slip Dissipation in a Toroidal Bose-Einstein Condensate Flowing Through a Barrier
• Anderson's considerations on the flow of superfluid helium: some offshoots
• Critical velocity for a toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate flowing through a barrier
• Instability and Vortex Rings Dynamics in a Three-Dimensional Superfluid Flow Through a Constriction
• Hydrodynamics of Superfluid Helium in a Single Nanohole
• Critical Flow and Dissipation in a Quasi-One-Dimensional Superfluid
• Critical Velocity in the Presence of Surface Bound States in Superfluid ${}^3$He-B
• Dynamical Density Fluctuation of Superfluids near Critical Velocities
• Critical velocity of a clean one-dimensional superconductor
• Density functional theory modeling of vortex shedding in superfluid He-4