Orthogonal and antiparallel vortex tubes and energy cascades in quantum turbulence

TL;DR

This paper studies how energy moves from large to small scales in quantum turbulence by analyzing vortex tube interactions through numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.

Contribution

It demonstrates the generation of orthogonal small-scale vortex tubes from large-scale antiparallel vortex tubes, revealing details of the energy cascade in quantum turbulence.

Findings

Large-scale antiparallel vortex tubes produce orthogonal small-scale vortex tubes.

Energy cascade is observed through vortex interactions in quantum turbulence.

Vortex line dynamics are elucidated in the cascade process.

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of energy cascades in quantum turbulence by directly observing the vorticity distributions in numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. By Fourier filtering each scale of the vorticity distribution, we find that antiparallel vortex tubes at a large scale generate small-scale vortex tubes orthogonal to those at the large scale, which is a manifestation of the energy cascade from large to small scales. We reveal the dynamics of quantized vortex lines in these processes.