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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 154501 (2008) [4 pages]

Velocity Statistics Distinguish Quantum Turbulence from Classical Turbulence

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M. S. Paoletti1, Michael E. Fisher2, K. R. Sreenivasan2,3, and D. P. Lathrop1,2,*
1Department of Physics, Department of Geology, and Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
2Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
3International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy 34014

Received 16 June 2008; published 6 October 2008

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By analyzing trajectories of solid hydrogen tracers, we find that the distributions of velocity in decaying quantum turbulence in superfluid 4He are strongly non-Gaussian with 1/v3 power-law tails. These features differ from the near-Gaussian statistics of homogenous and isotropic turbulence of classical fluids. We examine the dynamics of many events of reconnection between quantized vortices and show by simple scaling arguments that they produce the observed power-law tails.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.154501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.154501
PACS:
47.37.+q, 47.27.Gs, 52.35.Vd, 67.25.dk

*lathrop@umd.edu

 
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