Analog of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on superfluid liquid free surface

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the free surface of superfluid helium, revealing that the instability threshold is unaffected by viscosity and is experimentally observed between helium-3 phases.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in superfluid liquids, highlighting the threshold's independence from viscosity and confirming experimental observations.

Findings

Instability threshold is viscosity-independent.

Threshold is lower with dissipation than without.

Experimental observation in superfluid helium-3 phases.

Abstract

We analyse the analog of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on free suface of a superfluid liquid. This instability is induced by the relative motion of superfluid and normal components of the same liquid along the surface. The instability threshold is found to be independent of the value of viscosity, but turns out to be lower than in absence of dissipation. The result is similar to that obtained for the interface between two sliding superfluids (with different mechanism of dissipation) and confirmed by the first experimental observation of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the interface between A and B phases of superfluid helium-3 by Blaauwgeers et al. (cond-mat/0111343).