Measurement of Turbulence in Superfluid 3He-B

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel NMR-based method to generate and observe turbulence in superfluid 3He-B, enabling detailed study of vortex dynamics and transitions between regular and turbulent flow at very low temperatures.

Contribution

A new experimental technique using vortex injection and NMR spectroscopy to study turbulence in superfluid 3He-B at low temperatures.

Findings

Able to generate transient turbulence in 3He-B

Monitored vortex evolution with NMR spectroscopy

Observed transition between regular and turbulent vortex dynamics

Abstract

The experimental investigation of superfluid turbulence in 3He-B is generally not possible with the techniques which have been developed for 4He-II. We describe a new method by which a transient burst of turbulent vortex expansion can be generated in 3He-B. It is based on the injection of a few vortex loops into rotating vortex-free flow. The time-dependent evolution of the quantized vorticity is then monitored with NMR spectroscopy. Using these techniques the transition between regular (i.e. vortex number conserving) and turbulent vortex dynamics can be recorded at T ~ 0.6 Tc and a number of other characteristics of turbulence can be followed down to a temperature of T ~ 0.4 Tc.