Helicity in superfluids: Existence and the classical limit
Abstract
In addition to mass, energy, and momentum, classical dissipationless flows conserve helicity, a measure of the topology of the flow. Helicity has far-reaching consequences for classical flows from Newtonian fluids to plasmas. Since superfluids flow without dissipation, a fundamental question is whether such a conserved quantity exists for superfluid flows. We address the existence of a "superfluid helicity" using an analytical approach based on the symmetry underlying classical helicity conservation: the particle relabeling symmetry. Furthermore, we use numerical simulations to study whether bundles of superfluid vortices which approximate the structure of a classical vortex recover the conservation of classical helicity and we find dynamics consistent with classical vortices in a viscous fluid.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Fluids
- Pub Date:
- October 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.104702
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1708.01526
- Bibcode:
- 2018PhRvF...3j4702K
- Keywords:
-
- Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases;
- Physics - Atomic Physics;
- Physics - Fluid Dynamics
- E-Print:
- Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 104702 (2018)