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Physical Review Letters

Transition from Dissipationless Superflow to Homogeneous Superfluid Turbulence

Marie L. Baehr, L. B. Opatowsky, J. T. Tough

Published Dec 19, 1983• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The critical velocity has been measured at the transition from dissipationless superflow to homogeneous superfluid turbulence. The results do not agree well with the recent prediction of Schwarz based upon a topologically self-sustaining vortex tangle.
DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.51.2295

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In a recent experiment Paoletti [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 154501 (2008)]10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.154501 monitored the motion of tracer particles in turbulent superfluid helium and inferred that the velocity components do not obey the Gaussian statistics observed in ordinary turbulence. Motivated by their experiment, we create a small 3D turbulent state in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate, compute directly the velocity field, and find similar nonclassical power-law tails. We obtain similar results in 2D trapped and 3D homogeneous condensates, and in classical 2D vortex points systems. This suggests that non-Gaussian turbulent velocity statistics describe a fundamental property of quantum turbulence. We also track the decay of the vortex tangle in the presence of the thermal cloud.