Characteristics of two-dimensional quantum turbulence in a compressible superfluid.
Fluids subjected to suitable forcing will exhibit turbulence, with characteristics strongly affected by the fluid's physical properties and dimensionality. In this work, we explore two-dimensional (2D) quantum turbulence in an oblate Bose-Einstein condensate confined to an annular trapping potential. Experimentally, we find conditions for which small-scale stirring of the condensate generates disordered 2D vortex distributions that dissipatively evolve toward persistent currents, indicating energy transport from small to large length scales. Simulations of the experiment reveal spontaneous clustering of same-circulation vortices and an incompressible energy spectrum with k(-5/3) dependence for low wave numbers k. This work links experimentally observed vortex dynamics with signatures of 2D turbulence in a compressible superfluid.
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
T W
TW
Neely
Jack Dodd Centre for Quantum Technology, Department of Physics, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
A S
AS
Bradley
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
E C
EC
Samson
Jack Dodd Centre for Quantum Technology, Department of Physics, University of Otago, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
S J
SJ
Rooney
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
E M
EM
Wright
Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
K J H
KJ
Law
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182, USA.
R
R
Carretero-González
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA.
P G
PG
Kevrekidis
School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
M J
MJ
Davis
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
B P
BP
Anderson