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arXiv:1608.08701 · New Journal of Physics

Asymptotically solvable model for a solitonic vortex in a compressible superfluid

L. A. Toikka, Joachim Brand

Published Jan 3, 2017• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Vortex motion is a complex problem due to the interplay between the short-range physics at the vortex core level and the long-range hydrodynamical effects. Here we show that the hydrodynamic equations of vortex motion in a compressible superfluid can be solved asymptotically in a model 'slab' geometry. Starting from an exact solution for an incompressible fluid, the hydrodynamic equations are solved with a series expansion in a small tunable parameter provided by the ratio of the healing length, characterising the vortex cores, to the slab width. The key dynamical properties of the vortex, the inertial and physical masses, are well defined and renormalizable. They are calculated at leading order beyond the logarithmic accuracy that has limited previous approaches. Subtracting the asymptotic solutions of the universal hydrodynamic problem from experimental observations of vortex motion exposes the physics of the vortex core and provides a window into interesting many-body phenomena that are currently poorly understood including the role of quantum pressure. Our results provide a solid framework for further detailed study of the vortex mass and vortex forces in strongly correlated and exotic superfluids.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/aa5668

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Vortex motion is a complex problem due to the interplay between the short-range physics at the vortex core level and the long-range hydrodynamical effects. Here we show that the hydrodynamic equations of vortex motion in a compressible superfluid can be solved asymptotically in a model 'slab' geometry. Starting from an exact solution for an incompressible fluid, the hydrodynamic equations are solved with a series expansion in a small tunable parameter provided by the ratio of the healing length, characterising the vortex cores, to the slab width. The key dynamical properties of the vortex, the inertial and physical masses, are well defined and renormalizable. They are calculated at leading order beyond the logarithmic accuracy that has limited previous approaches. Subtracting the asymptotic solutions of the universal hydrodynamic problem from experimental observations of vortex motion exposes the physics of the vortex core and provides a window into interesting many-body phenomena that are currently poorly understood including the role of quantum pressure. Our results provide a solid framework for further detailed study of the vortex mass and vortex forces in strongly correlated and exotic superfluids.
An inertial mass of a vortex can be calculated by driving it around in a circle with a steadily revolving pinning potential. We show that in the low-frequency limit this gives precisely the same formula that was used by Baym and Chandler, but find that the result is not unique and depends on the force field used to cause the acceleration. We apply this method to the Gross-Pitaevskii model, and derive a simple formula for the vortex mass. We study both the long-range and short-range properties of the solution. We agree with earlier results that the nonzero compressibility leads to a divergent mass. From the short-range behavior of the solution we find that the mass is sensitive to the form of the pinning potential, and diverges logarithmically when the radius of this potential tends to zero.
Vortex mass, which is the inertia of a quantum vortex, has never been observed in superfluids and is a long-standing problem in low-temperature physics. The impact of the mass is considered negligible in typical experiments with superfluid 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He. Recent developments of experimental techniques for manipulating quantum vortices in superfluid atomic gases have enabled us to test this problem more accurately. By introducing the vortex mass time and length as universal scales to many-body problems of massive quantum vortices, the theoretical description is formulated in the simplest manner and is universally applicable to different quantum fluids, including fermionic and multicomponent superfluids. There are two branches, the cyclotron and massless branches, for the circular motion of a pair of like-sign vortices. Finding a stable cyclotron branch for the motion of vortices is a clear evidence of vortex mass and superfluid $^{3}\mathrm{He}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{B}$ is the specific example of a system where this phenomena could be observed. The impact of the mass on the massless branch is small but can be enhanced by taking the difference in the two-body dynamics of point vortices with different initial conditions. Our results imply that the vortex mass is a direct cause of the splitting instability of a doubly quantized vortex at absolute zero and that the vortex mass length characterizes the final state after the instability. It is also demonstrated that a pair of massive vortices with opposite circulations has a critical distance characterized by the vortex mass length, below which they are spontaneously annihilated without thermal fluctuations.
A large ensemble of quantum vortices in a superfluid may itself be treated as a novel kind of fluid that exhibits anomalous hydrodynamics. Here we consider the dynamics of vortex clusters under thermal friction and present an analytic solution that uncovers a new universality class in the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of dissipative superfluids. We find that the long-time dynamics of the vorticity distribution is universal in the form of an expanding Rankine vortex (i.e., top-hat distribution) independent of initial conditions. This highlights a fundamentally different decay process to classical fluids, where the Rankine vortex is forbidden by viscous diffusion. Numerical simulations of large ensembles of point vortices confirm the universal expansion dynamics and further reveal the emergence of a frustrated lattice structure marked by strong correlations. We present experimental results of expanding vortex clusters in a quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate that are in excellent agreement with the vortex fluid theory predictions, demonstrating that the signatures of vortex fluid theory can be observed with as few as N∼11 vortices. Our theoretical, numerical, and experimental results establish the validity of the vortex fluid theory for superfluid systems.
We investigate the dynamics of quantized vortices in a model two-dimensional supersolid. Starting from an effective action that captures the dynamics of the superfluid condensate and its coupling to the lattice displacements, we integrate out the low-energy Goldstone modes-the phonons of the solid and the superfluid condensate-to arrive at an effective action for the vortices in the condensate. In the low-velocity limit we calculate the effective inertial mass for the vortices, and we find that the mass has a logarithmic frequency dependence, similar to the inertial mass found in superfluid vortices. The vortex dynamics also includes a Magnus force term in the equation of motion that arises from the Berry phase in the effective action.
A fully analytical theory of a traveling soliton in a one-dimensional fermionic superfluid is developed within the framework of time-dependent self-consistent Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations, which are solved exactly in the Andreev approximation. The soliton manifests itself in a kinklike profile of the superconducting order parameter and hosts a pair of Andreev bound states in its core. They adjust to the soliton's motion and play an important role in its stabilization. A phase jump across the soliton and its energy decrease with the soliton's velocity and vanish at the critical velocity, corresponding to the Landau criterion, where the soliton starts emitting quasiparticles and becomes unstable. The ``inertial'' and ``gravitational'' masses of the soliton are calculated and the former is shown to be orders of magnitude larger than the latter. This results in a slow motion of the soliton in a harmonic trap, reminiscent of the observed behavior of a solitonlike texture in related experiments in cold fermion gases [T. Yefsah et al., Nature (London) 499, 426 (2013)]. Furthermore, we calculate the full nonlinear dispersion relation of the soliton and solve the classical equations of motion in a trap. The strong nonlinearity at high velocities gives rise to anharmonic oscillatory motion of the soliton. A careful analysis of this anharmonicity may provide a means to experimentally measure the nonlinear soliton spectrum in superfluids.