title: Chirality of superfluid 3He-A.
abstract: We have used torsional oscillators, containing disk-shaped slabs of superfluid (3)He-A, to probe the chiral orbital textures created by cooling into the superfluid state while continuously rotating. Comparing the observed flow-driven textural transitions with numerical simulations of possible textures shows that an oriented monodomain texture with l antiparallel to the angular velocity Ω(0) is left behind after stopping rotation. The bias toward a particular chirality, while in the vortex state, is due to the inequivalence of energies of vortices of opposite circulation. When spun-up from rest, the critical velocity for vortex nucleation depends on the sense of rotation relative to that of l. A different type of vorticity, apparently linked to the slab's rim by a domain wall, appears when the angular velocity, Ω, is parallel to l.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Walmsley
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Golov