title: Laser-induced gas vortices.
abstract: Recently, several femtosecond-laser techniques have demonstrated molecular excitation to high rotational states with a preferred sense of rotation. We consider collisional relaxation in a dense gas of such unidirectionally rotating molecules, and suggest that due to angular momentum conservation, collisions lead to the generation of macroscopic vortex gas flows. This argument is supported using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method, followed by a computational gas-dynamic analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 234 Herzl Street, Rehovot, Israel 76100. uri.steinitz@weizmann.ac.il
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Steinitz
authors.forename: Yehiam
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Prior
authors.forename: Ilya Sh
authors.initials: ISh
authors.lastname: Averbukh