Universal description of massive point vortices and verification methods of vortex inertia in superfluids

TL;DR

This paper introduces a universal framework for describing the inertia of quantum vortices in superfluids, enabling experimental verification of vortex mass effects across various quantum fluid systems.

Contribution

It formulates a universal theoretical description of vortex mass using new scales, applicable to different superfluids, and predicts observable phenomena like vortex splitting and annihilation.

Findings

Existence of stable cyclotron vortex motion as evidence of vortex mass

Vortex mass causes splitting instability of doubly quantized vortices

Critical distance for vortex annihilation depends on vortex mass length

Abstract

Vortex mass, which is the inertia of a quantum vortex, has never been observed in superfluids and is a long-standing problem in low temperature physics. The impact of the mass is considered negligible in typical experiments with superfluid $^4$He. Recent developments of experimental techniques for manipulating quantum vortices in superfluid atomic gases have enabled us to test this problem more accurately. By introducing the vortex mass time and length as universal scales to many-body problems of massive quantum vortices, the theoretical description is formulated in the simplest manner and is universally applicable to different quantum fluids, including fermionic and multicomponent superfluids. There are two branches, the cyclotron and massless branches, for the circular motion of a pair of like-sign vortices. Finding a stable cyclotron branch for the motion of vortices is a clear evidence of vortex mass and superfluid $^3$He-B is the specific example of a system where this phenomena could be observed. The impact of the mass on the massless branch is small but can be enhanced by taking the difference in the two-body dynamics of point vortices with different initial conditions. Our results imply that the vortex mass is a direct cause of the splitting instability of a doubly quantized vortex at absolute zero and that the vortex mass length characterizes the final state after the instability. It is also demonstrated that a pair of massive vortices with opposite circulations has a critical distance characterized by the vortex mass length, below which they are spontaneously annihilated without thermal fluctuations.