Velocity statistics distinguish quantum turbulence from classical turbulence.
By analyzing trajectories of solid hydrogen tracers, we find that the distributions of velocity in decaying quantum turbulence in superfluid 4He are strongly non-Gaussian with 1/v(3) power-law tails. These features differ from the near-Gaussian statistics of homogenous and isotropic turbulence of classical fluids. We examine the dynamics of many events of reconnection between quantized vortices and show by simple scaling arguments that they produce the observed power-law tails.
Paoletti
M S
MS
Department of Physics, Department of Geology, and Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
Fisher
Michael E
ME
Sreenivasan
K R
KR
Lathrop
D P
DP