Experiments on quantum turbulence within superfluid 3He-B

Lowe, Michael Robert and Bradley, David (2003) Experiments on quantum turbulence within superfluid 3He-B. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis describes experiments conducted on B phase 3He in the μK temperature regime to investigate the turbulent properties of quantised vortices created by driving a vibrating wire resonator above its superfluid pair breaking critical velocity. By operating several resonators as highly sensitive vortex detectors the localised effects of vortex lines have been measured. The results have shown the vortices being of greater density in the directions of the generating wire motion and the rate of production being dependent upon the generator wire velocity. The rate at which the vortices decay spatially has been shown to approximate to a simple exponential and the decay length of this exponential has been measured. Using a thermal quasiparticle beam emitted by a black body radiator, the temperature dependence of the vorticity has been investigated for several quasiparticle beam temperatures between 177μK and 275μK and several bulk superfluid temperatures between 171μK and 236μK. The vortex line density of the turbulence has been calculated using a mathematical model developed here at Lancaster and shows some dependence on the temperature of the superfluid. The method of using a quasiparticle beam emitted from a black body radiator may be developed to allow a higher resolution of investigation of vortex creation and decay.