We develop a neutral vortex fluid theory on closed surfaces with zero genus. The theory describes collective dynamics of many well-separated quantum vortices in a superfluid confined on a closed surface. Comparing to the case on a plane, the covariant vortex fluid equation on a curved surface contains an additional term proportional to Gaussian curvature multiplying the circulation quantum. This term describes the coupling between topological defects and curvature in the macroscopic level. For a sphere, the simplest nontrivial stationary vortex flow is obtained analytically and this flow is analogous to the celebrated zonal Rossby-Haurwitz wave in classical fluids on a nonrotating sphere. For this flow the difference between the coarse-grained vortex velocity field and the fluid velocity field generated by vortices is solely driven by curvature and vanishes in the corresponding vortex flow on a plane when the radius of the sphere goes to infinity. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We develop a neutral vortex fluid theory on closed surfaces with zero genus. The theory describes collective dynamics of many well-separated quantum vortices in a superfluid confined on a closed surface. Comparing to the case on a plane, the covariant vortex fluid equation on a curved surface contains an additional term proportional to Gaussian curvature multiplying the circulation quantum. This term describes the coupling between topological defects and curvature in the macroscopic level. For a sphere, the simplest nontrivial stationary vortex flow is obtained analytically and this flow is analogous to the celebrated zonal Rossby-Haurwitz wave in classical fluids on a nonrotating sphere. For this flow the difference between the coarse-grained vortex velocity field and the fluid velocity field generated by vortices is solely driven by curvature and vanishes in the corresponding vortex flow on a plane when the radius of the sphere goes to infinity. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The superfluid flow velocity is proportional to the gradient of the phase of the superfluid order parameter, leading to the quantization of circulation around a vortex core. In this work, we study the dynamics of a superfluid film on the surface of a torus. Such a compact surface allows only configurations of vortices with zero net vorticity. We derive analytic expressions for the flow field, the total energy, and the time-dependent dynamics of the vortex cores. The local curvature of the torus and the presence of noncontractable loops on this multiply connected surface alter both the superfluid flow and the vortex dynamics. Finally, we consider more general surfaces of revolution, called toroids.
The study of superfluid quantum vortices has long been an important area of research, with previous work naturally focusing on two-dimensional and three-dimensional systems, where rotation stabilizes point vortices and line vortices respectively. Interestingly, this physics generalizes for a hypothetical four-dimensional (4D) superfluid to include vortex planes, which can have a much richer phenomenology. In this paper we study the possibility of skewed and curved vortex planes, which have no direct analog in lower dimensions. By analytically and numerically studying the 4D Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we show that such vortex surfaces can be stabilized and favored by double rotation with unequal rotation frequencies. Our work raises open questions for further research into the physics of these vortex surfaces and suggests interesting future extensions to tilted vortex surfaces under equal-frequency double rotation and to more realistic 4D models. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Geometric quantum hydrodynamics merges geometric hydrodynamics with quantum hydrodynamics to study the geometric properties of vortex structures in superfluid states of matter. Here the vortex line acts as the fundamental building block and is a topological defect of the fluid medium about which the otherwise irrotational fluid circulates. In this thesis, we show that except for the simplest fluid flows, a vortex line seeks to decompose localized regions of curvature into helical configurations. The simplest flow, known as the local induction approximation, is also an integrable one. Integrability makes the transfer of energy into helical modes impossible. In the following, we demonstrate that any arclength conserving correction to this approximation defines a non-Hamiltonian evolution of the vortex geometry, which is capable of supporting dissipative solitons and helical wavefronts. Quantum turbulence in ultracold vortex tangles relies on energy transfer between helical or Kelvin modes to decay. Thus, models of vortex lines beyond the lowest order integrable cases are vitally important to our mathematical description of free decay of turbulent tangles. To motivate the results of this thesis we connect our theory of vortex line dynamics to continuum fluid mechanics. The Navier-Stokes equations are a statement of momentum balance for a fluid whose response to shear stress is proportional to the fluid's velocity gradients. Building off of Onsager's rather obscure work in fluid turbulence, others have shown that solutions to Navier-Stokes limit to Euler evolutions of distributional velocity profiles for large Reynolds number. Using this as our context, we show that the Euler equation can be transformed, in an inverse Madelung sense, to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation associated with the mean-field quantum dynamics of a dilute Bose gas. This theory predicts that an irrotational fluid is capable of circulating around regions of density depletion known as vortex lines. Furthermore, if a vortex line is used as the ansatz for the Gross-Pitaevskii equation then it is possible to show that the Biot-Savart integral over the vortex source results. This connection between the vortex line geometry and the induced velocity field provides the basis for the application of geometric quantum hydrodynamics to Bose-Einstein condensates. If the Biot-Savart integral is the basis of geometric quantum hydrodynamics, then Hasimoto's transformation is the structure built on top. The fundamental theorem of space curves states that up to rotations and translations, a curve is defined by its curvature and torsion. Through the Hasimoto transformation, it is possible to map flows defined by the Biot-Savart integral to scalar partial differential equations evolving the curvature and torsion of a vortex line. In this thesis, we conduct an asymptotic expansion of the Biot-Savart integral and apply the Hasimoto transformation to show that vortex lines prefer to relax curved abnormalities through the excitation of helical waves along the vortex. Thus, our…
Superfluid vortex dynamics on an infinite cylinder differs significantly from that on a plane. The requirement that a condensate wave function be single valued upon once encircling the cylinder means that such a single vortex cannot remain stationary. Instead, it acquires one of a series of quantized translational velocities around the circumference, the simplest being $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\ensuremath{\hbar}/(2MR)$, with M the mass of the superfluid particles and R the radius of the cylinder. A generalization to a finite cylinder automatically includes these quantum-mechanical effects through the pairing of the single vortex and its image in either the top or bottom end of the surface. The dynamics of a single vortex on this surface provides a hydrodynamic analog of Laughlin pumping. The interaction energy for two vortices on an infinite cylinder is proportional to the classical stream function $\ensuremath{\chi}({\mathbit{r}}_{12})$, and it crosses over from logarithmic to linear when the intervortex separation ${\mathbit{r}}_{12}$ becomes larger than the cylinder radius. An appendix summarizes the connection to an earlier study of Ho and Huang for one or more vortices on an infinite cylinder. A second appendix reviews the topologically equivalent planar annulus, where such quantized vortex motion has no offset, but Laughlin pumping may be more accessible to experimental observation.
As is well known, two-dimensional and three-dimensional superfluids under rotation can support topological excitations such as quantized point vortices and line vortices, respectively. Recently, we have studied how, in a hypothetical four-dimensional (4D) superfluid, such excitations can be generalized to vortex planes and surfaces. In this paper we continue our analysis of skewed and curved vortex surfaces based on the 4D Gross-Pitaevskii equation and show that certain types of such states can be stabilized by equal-frequency double rotations for suitable parameters. This work extends the rich phenomenology of vortex surfaces in four dimensions and raises interesting questions about vortex reconnections and the competition between various vortex structures which have no direct analog in lower dimensions. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
In quantum theory, vortex lines arise in the hydrodynamic interpretation of the wave equation. In this interpretation, which is originally due to Madelung, the flow of the probability density for a single particle is described in terms of the hydrodynamic variables. For the sake of simplicity, the standard time-dependent Schrödinger equation, and the related vortex lines embedded in the probability fluid of the quantum particle, are considered here. A vortex line in this case is simply the curve defined by equating the wave function to zero. The linearity of the Schrödinger equation enables us to obtain a large family of exact time-dependent analytic solutions for the wave functions with vortex lines. Moreover, the method is general enough to allow for various initial configurations of the vortex lines. Although the equation of motion of the quantum mechanical probability fluid is different in its literal form from the equations describing the real physical fluid, we believe that the evolution of the vorticity in the quantum and in the real fluid share the same qualitative features that can be described in terms of the topology of the vortex lines configurations. The general phenomena such as the switch-over, creation and annihilation of vortices can be observed in the quantum mechanical fluid. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.