Vortex shedding in a model of superflow

Abstract

The present article represents part of the PhD. dissertation by C. Josserand. We discuss the nucleation of quantized vortices in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) for a flow around a disk in two spatial dimensions. It appears that the vortices are nucleated when the flow becomes locally (at the edge of the disk) supersonic. A detailed study of the phase equation for the complex field $\psi$ gives an Euler-Tricomi type equation for the stationary solutions below threshold. This equation is closely related to the one known in shock wave dynamics for gas. Then using solvability condition, we extract a time-dependent scenario for the evolution of the amplitude of the solution, which we, finally, relate to a known family solution of NLS which gives rise to a vortex nucleation. We also give a first order correction at the Landau velocity of nucleation, taking into account the geometry of the flow.

25 pages, 9 figures