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Atoms in contact (8) : Blowing smoke rings in superfluid helium.

P. V. E. McClintock

Published Mar 5, 1977• 0 citations
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Abstract

Strange effects in the behaviour of superfluids are the province of two British physicists who have been dragging charged atoms and electrons (ions) through superfluid helium. In this first of two articles they describe the formation of trapped vortex rings of helium swirling about the moving ion.

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Recent experiments on quantum turbulence in superfluid helium made use of small tracer particles to track the motion of quantized vortices, determine velocity statistics and visualize vortex reconnections. A problem with this visualization technique is that it may change the turbulent flow which it visualizes. To address this problem, we derive and solve the equations of motion of a quantized vortex ring which contains a given number of particles trapped on the vortex core, hence derive a quantitative criterion to determine in which measure small particles trapped in quantized vortices affect vortex motion. Finally we apply the criterion to a recent experiment.
We have produced and observed quantized vortex rings emitted from orifices when superfluid helium is forced through channels at critical velocity. The vortices are identified by measuring their velocity and size, and are found to be in the n=1n=1n=1 quantum state.