Identified as a unique regime of fluid flow some 500 years ago, turbulence has fascinated and confounded for centuries. Indeed, a fundamental understanding of the turbulence phenomenon remains one of the most important unsolved problems in classical physics. Interestingly, superfluid atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) can also be agitated into highly excited states of chaotic vortex motion, suggestive of turbulence. However, in contrast to classical fluids, the vortices in these quantum systems exhibit topological stability, the restriction of quantized circulation, and a well defined length scale characterized by the so-called healing length of the superfluid. Such simplifying aspects motivate the study of turbulence in these systems, which may shed new light on the longstanding classical problem. \n\nWhilst a considerable number of studies have been conducted on turbulence in three-dimensional BEC systems, and such studies have uncovered similarities between the classical and quantum counterparts, including the presence of the Kolmogorov
k−5/3 law in the kinetic energy spectrum and the associated direct energy cascade, comparatively few studies have been conducted on two-dimensional quantum turbulence. An important question for such systems is whether the inverse energy cascade, a defining feature of classical two-dimensional turbulent fluid flows, may occur in these systems. In addition to a Kolmogorov kinetic energy spectrum, this process is signified by the clustering of same-circulation vortices, which results in the emergence of macroscopic vortex structures from the turbulent flow. \n\nAlthough intermittent few-vortex clustering has been observed in the break-down of superfluid flow around an obstacle, current attempts to observe a sustained inverse cascade have been unsuccessful, largely due to complications which arise due to the compressibility of the dilute Bose gas - a feature not considered in the classical theory.\n\nWe present a study of two-dimensional quantum turbulence in atomic BECs within the framework of damped Gross-Pitaevskii theory. With the motivation of determining the existence of the inverse cascade phenomenon in such systems, we focusing on experimentally realistic forcing procedures, and study the details of kinetic energy spectra, the statistics of vortex clustering, and the transport of kinetic energy through scale space in the resulting turbulent flows.\nWe investigate a range of vortex injection regimes produced through the circular stirring of a harmonically confined system with a repulsive Gaussian obstacle potential, identifying distinct regimes of turbulence. In the incompressible regime relevant to the inverse cascade, we identify numerous problems with the system and forcing procedure. Motivated by these findings, we investigate turbulence in a minimal model of the spindown of a toroidal persistent current. In this system, we identify a regime of forcing and damping in which the inverse cascade is corroborated by three independent measures: I) merging of vortex clusters; II) a Kolmogorov scaling in the incompressible kinetic energy spectrum; and III) Spectral condensation, associated with the emergence of large scale rotating structures from the turbulent flow. We provide clear evidence that the inverse cascade phenomenon, previously observed in a range of classical fluid systems, can also occur in quantum turbulence.
We demonstrate an inverse energy cascade in a minimal model of forced 2D quantum vortex turbulence. We simulate the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for a moving superfluid subject to forcing by a stationary grid of obstacle potentials, and damping by a stationary thermal cloud. The forcing injects large amounts of vortex energy into the system at the scale of a few healing lengths. A regime of forcing and damping is identified where vortex energy is efficiently transported to large length scales via an inverse energy cascade associated with the growth of clusters of same-circulation vortices, a Kolmogorov scaling law in the kinetic energy spectrum over a substantial inertial range, and spectral condensation of kinetic energy at the scale of the system size. Our results provide clear evidence that the inverse energy cascade phenomenon, previously observed in a diverse range of classical systems, can also occur in quantum fluids.
We describe turbulent hydrodynamics of superfluids in two spatial dimensions via the dynamics of point-like vortices coupled to an emergent 2+1 dimensional
U(1) gauge field. The cascade of superfluid kinetic energy is equivalently described by a cascade of dual electric field energies. We study superfluid turbulence using the equations of motion of the dual gauge theory in the presence of a drive and dissipation. In the limit that the vortices are point-like, the dual equations of motion directly yield the hydrodynamical equations of the superfluid. We obtain a turbulent cascade consistent with Kolmogorov's scaling law for two dimensional fluid turbulence. We observe clustering of like-signed vortices and compute the kinetic energy flux to show that the turbulent regime exhibits an inverse energy cascade.
We numerically study two-dimensional quantum turbulence with a Gross-Pitaevskii model. With the energy initially accumulated at large scale, quantum turbulence with many quantized vortex points is generated. Due to the lack of enstrophy conservation in this model, direct energy cascade with a Kolmogorov-Obukhov energy spectrum $E(k)\ensuremath{\propto}{k}^{\ensuremath{-}5/3}$ is observed, which is quite different from two-dimensional incompressible classical turbulence in the decaying case. A positive value for the energy flux guarantees a direct energy cascade in the inertial range (from large to small scales). After almost all the energy at the large scale cascades to the small scale, the compressible kinetic energy realizes the thermodynamic equilibrium state without quantized vortices.
The dynamics of the forward vortex cascade in 2D turbulence in a superfluid film is investigated using analytic techniques. The cascade is formed by injecting pairs with the same initial seperation (the stirring code) at a constant rate. They move to smaller scales with constant current under the action of frictional forces, finally reaching the core size separation, where they annihilate and the energy is removed by a thermal bath. On switching off the injection, the pair distribution first decays starting from the initial stirring scale, with the total vortex density decreasing linearly in time at a rate equal to the initial injection rate. As pairs at smaller scales decay, the vortex density then falls off as a power law, the same power law found in recent exact solutions of quenched 2D superfluids.