Ring vortex destabilization in supersaturated 3He-4He liquid mixtures at low temperatures

In the cooling concept by adiabatic melting, solid $^{4}$He is converted to liquid and mixed with $^{3}$He to produce cooling power directly in the liquid phase. This method overcomes the thermal boundary resistance that conventionally limits the lowest available temperatures in the helium fluids, and hence makes it possible to reach for the temperatures significantly below 100 $\mu$K. In this paper we focus on the thermodynamics of the melting process, and examine the factor...

We study the dynamical process of the vortex tangle development under a spherically symmetric thermal counterflow around a heat source submerged into a bulk superfluid 4He. We reveal a peculiar vortex dynamics that is unique to this geometry, which is greatly diverse from the vortex dynamics in a homogeneous counterflow. Two types of heater are considered here, namely, a spherical heater with a solid wall and a point-like heater. In both cases, a spherical vortex tangle is fo...

We have studied the merging of two $^4$He droplets at zero temperature, caused by their Van der Waals mutual attraction. During the early stages of the merging, density structures appear which closely match the experimental observations by Vicente et al. [J. Low Temp. Phys. 121, 627 (2000)]. When the droplets are merging, quantized vortex-antivortex ring pairs nucleate at the surface and annihilate inside the merged droplet producing a roton burst. We also observe the nucleat...

This article reviews recent developments in the physics of quantized vortices in superfluid helium and atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Quantized vortices appear in low-temperature quantum condensed systems as the direct product of Bose-Einstein condensation. Quantized vortices were first discovered in superfluid 4He in the 1950s, and have since been studied with a primary focus on the quantum hydrodynamics of this system. Since the discovery of superfluid 3He in 1972, quant...

Bulk superfluid helium supports two sound modes: first sound is an ordinary pressure wave, while second sound is a temperature wave, unique to inviscid superfluid systems. These sound modes do not usually exist independently, but rather variations in pressure are accompanied by variations in temperature, and vice versa. We studied the coupling between first and second sound in dilute $^3$He - superfluid $^4$He mixtures, between 1.6 K and 2.2 K, at $^3$He concentrations rangin...

The flow of superfluid $^4$He around a translationally oscillating sphere, levitating without mechanical support, can either be laminar or turbulent, depending on the velocity amplitude. Below a critical velocity $v_c$ that scales as $\omega ^{1/2}$, and is temperature independent below 1 K, the flow is laminar (potential flow). Below 0.5 K the linear drag force is caused by ballistic phonon scattering that vanishes as T$^4$ until background damping, measured in the empty cel...

We consider superfluid helium inside a container which rotates at constant angular velocity and investigate numerically the stability of the array of quantized vortices in the presence of an imposed axial counterflow. This problem was studied experimentally by Swanson {\it et al.}, who reported evidence of instabilities at increasing axial flow but were not able to explain their nature. We find that Kelvin waves on individual vortices become unstable and grow in amplitude, un...

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 $^4$He. Recent developments of experimental techniques for manipulating quantum vortices in superfluid atomic gases have enabled us to test this problem more accurately. By introducing universal time and length scales to many-body problems ...

Recent experiments have demonstrated a remarkable progress in implementing and use of the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and particle tracking techniques for the study of turbulence in He4. However, an interpretation of the experimental data in the superfluid phase requires understanding how the motion of tracer particles is affected by the two components, the viscous normal fluid and the inviscid superfluid. Of a particular importance is the problem of particle interaction...

Vortex dynamics in 3He-B is divided by the temperature dependent damping into a high-temperature regime, where the number of vortices is conserved, and a low-temperature regime, where rapid vortex multiplication takes place in a turbulent burst. We investigate experimentally the hydrodynamic transition between these two regimes by injecting seed vortex loops into vortex-free rotating flow. The onset temperature of turbulence is dominated by the roughly exponential temperature...