Untangling Superfluid Vortices

ORAL

Abstract

Previous work has shown that simple knotted vortices will untie in both viscous fluids and superfluids. Does the same behavior hold for complexly tangled vortices, irrespective or shape and topology? By simulating large numbers of vortex configurations in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, I will show that the spontaneous unknotting of vortices is a universal feature of undriven fluids. I will also discuss the connection to conservation of helicity and topological features of the unknotting process.

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Presenters

  • Dustin Kleckner

    • Physics, Univ of California - Merced
    • Univ of California - Merced

Authors

  • Dustin Kleckner

    • Physics, Univ of California - Merced
    • Univ of California - Merced

  • Martin Scheeler

    • University of Chicago

  • Hridesh Kedia

    • Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT
    • University of Chicago

  • William Irvine

    • University of Chicago
    • James Franck Institute, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago

  • Louis Kauffman

    • University of Illinois - Chicago