Ginzburg-Landau Description of Vortex Nucleation in a Rotating Superfluid

Nucleation of vortices in rotating superfluid by spin-up and rapid thermal quench is discussed in the framework of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation (TDGLE). An analysis of the instability in inhomogeneous rotationally-invariant system results in the expression for the critical rotational velocity. A stability analysis of multicharged vortices is presented. It is shown that they are very long-living objects with lifetime inversely proportional to the dissipation rate. It was found by numerical and analytical solution of the TDGLE that vortex nucleation by rapid thermal quench in the presence of superflow is dominated by a transverse instability of the moving normal-superfluid interface.