Vortex Nucleation in a Superfluid
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Vortex Nucleation in a Superfluid by Dominic Marchand B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Universite Laval, 2002 B.Sc. in Physics, The University of British Columbia, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Science in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Physics) The University Of British Columbia October 2006 © Dominic Marchand, 2006 Abstract Superfluids have very peculiar rotational properties as the Hess-Fairbank experiment spectac• ularly demonstrates. In this experiment, a rotating vessel filled with helium is cooled down past the critical temperature. Remarkably, as the liquid becomes superfluid, it gradually stops its rotation. This expulsion of vorticity, analogous to the Meissner effect, provides a funda• mental experimental definition of superfluidity. As a consequence, superfluids not only posses quasiparticles like phonons, but also quantized vortex excitations. This thesis examines the creation mechanism of vortices, or nucleation, in the low temper• ature limit. At these temperatures, thermal activation of vortices is ruled out and nucleation must be a tunneling effect. Unfortunately, there is no theory to describe this nucleation process. Vortex nucleation is believed to more likely occur in the vicinity of irregularities of the vessel. We therefore consider a few simple, yet experimentally realistic, two-dimensional configurations to calculate nucleation rates. Close to zero temperature and within a certain approximation, the superfluid is inviscid and incompressible such that it can naturally be treated as an ideal two-dimensional fluid flow. Calculating the energy of static vortex configurations can then be done with standard hydrodynamics. The kinetic energy of the flow as a function of the position of the vortex then describes a potential barrier for vortex nucleation. Under rotation, the vortex-free state becomes metastable and can decay to a state with one or more vortices. In this thesis, we carry out a semiclassical calculation of the nucleation rate exponent. We use the WKB method along the path of least action created by the presence of a bump or wedge. This work is but a first approximation as fluctuations around this path can be added as well. The main purpose has been to lay down the groundwork required to include the dissipative effect of the coupling to phonons, which is paramount to an accurate description of the phenomenon. This effect could then be included using the Caldeira-Leggett dissipative tunneling effect [4]. ii Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List of Figures vi Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 A Brief History of Superfluidity 1 1.1.1 The Birth of the Field of Quantum Fluids 1 1.1.2 Toward a Macroscopic Theory, the Two-Fluid Model 2 1.1.3 The Landau-Tisza Controversy (1941-1947) 3 1.1.4 Towards a Microscopic Justification 4 1.1.5 Another Superfluid 5 1.2 Theory of Superfluidity 5 1.2.1 Definition of Superfluidity 5 1.2.2 The Two-Fluid Model 6 1.2.3 Quantum Fluid 8 1.2.4 Similarities with the Ideal Bose-Einstein Gas 8 1.2.5 Wave Function 10 1.2.6 Excitations and Quasiparticles 12 1.2.7 The Quantization of Circulation and the Vortex State 13 1.3 Investigations of Vortices and Vortex Nucleation in Superfluid 4He 14 1.3.1 Rotational Motion and Quantization 15 1.3.2 Observation of Vortices 15 1.3.3 Vortex Nucleation and the Limitation of Superflow 15 1.3.4 Nucleation of Quantized Vortex Rings 17 1.3.5 Quantum Tunnelling 19 1.4 Theoretical Studies of Vortex Nucleation 20 1.5 Our Motivation 21 2 Hydrodynamics and Superflow Configurations 22 2.1 Two-Dimensional Ideal Fluid Flow Description 22 2.1.1 Convention for Flux and Density in Two Dimensions 23 iii 2.1.2 Description of a Two-Dimensional Ideal Fluid Flow 23 2.1.3 The Velocity Potential $ 24 2.1.4 The Stream Function * 25 2.1.5 Boundary Conditions 25 2.1.6 Conformal Mapping 26 2.1.7 Multiply-Connected Regions 27 2.2 Description of Quantized Vortices 29 2.2.1 Properties of a Rectilinear Vortex 29 2.2.2 Velocity Potential and Stream Function 30 2.2.3 Example: Off-Center Vortex in a Cylinder 31 2.3 Kinetic Energy 35 2.3.1 Energy of an Off-Center Vortex in a Cylinder 35 2.3.2 Line Integral on the Boundary 40 2.3.3 Branch Cuts 41 3 Simple Yet Useful Configurations 43 3.1 Vortex in a Cylinder With a Wedge 43 3.1.1 Starting Configuration With No Wedge 44 3.1.2 Conformal Mapping 44 3.1.3 Corrections to the Position of the Vortex 50 3.1.4 Kinetic Energy 51 3.1.5 Rotation of the Cylinder 55 3.2 Circular Bump on a Flat Wall 56 3.2.1 Complex Velocity Potential 57 3.2.2 Kinetic Energy 60 4 Vortex Nucleation and Tunneling 66 4.1 The WKB Approximation 66 4.1.1 Exponent 66 4.1.2 WKB in Higher Dimensions 67 4.1.3 Vortex Nucleation 67 4.2 Tunneling Rate For a Perfect Cylinder 67 4.2.1 Properties of the Barrier 67 4.2.2 Approximations to the Potential 69 4.2.3 Numerical Integration 72 4.2.4 Curve Fits and Approximations 72 4.3 Tunneling Rate For a Circular Bump on a Flat Wall 74 4.3.1 Properties of the Barrier 74 4.3.2 Numerical Integration 75 4.3.3 Curve Fits and Approximations 76 4.4 Effective Mass of a Vortex 85 4.4.1 Inertial Mass of a Vortex for a Non-Uniform Condensate 86 4.5 Future Work and Conclusions 88 iv Bibliography 90 v List of Figures 1.1 Phase diagram and specific heat of 4He 2 1.2 Two-fluid model 7 1.3 Energy spectrum of quasiparticles in superfluid helium 12 1.4 Schematic of a superfluid gyroscope 17 1.5 Possible metastates for the superfluid gyroscope 18 1.6 Alternative models of vortex ring nucleation by ion 18 2.1 Simply-connected and multiply-connected regions 27 2.2 Method of images for a vortex inside a cylinder 32 2.3 Geometry for an off-center vortex with an image vortex 33 2.4 Equipotential lines and lines of force for a cylindrical capacitor 38 2.5 Equipotential and stream lines for an off-center vortex 39 2.6 Branch cut for a vortex in a cylinder 42 3.1 Mapping to a cylinder with a wedge 43 3.2 Mapping from a circle to a circle with a wedge 45 3.3 Mapping from a circle to the upper half-plane 46 3.4 Mapping to the upper half-plane with a wedge 46 3.5 Mapping to a circle with a wedge 49 3.6 Coordinates offset due to the mapping 50 3.7 Energy of a vortex in a cylinder with a wedge 53 3.8 Energy of a vortex on the x axis in a cylinder with a wedge 54 3.9 Modification to the energy of a vortex in a rotating cylinder 56 3.10 Stream functions of a flow past a cylinder and a moving cylinder 58 3.11 Vortices configuration for a cylindrical bump on a flat wall 59 3.12 Stream function of a vortex near a moving cylinder 60 3.13 Branch cut for the vortex configuration near a cylinder 60 3.14 Energy of a vortex near a semi-circular bump 64 3.15 Lines of constant energy for a vortex near a semi-circular bump 65 4.1 Potential for a vortex in a perfect cylinder as a function of u 68 4.2 Approximations of V(x) for a vortex in a perfect cylinder 70 4.3 j(u) for a perfect cylinder where the potential is defined in 2 parts: linear and quadratic 71 vi 4.4 j(u) for a perfect cylinder where the potential is defined in 2 parts: quadratic and quadratic 72 4.5 Curve fits of 7(7/) for a perfect cylinder using 7 = A|iz|~A +70 73 4.6 Fit parameters for a perfect cylinder with 7 = A|'u|_A + 70 77 4.7 Fit parameters for a perfect cylinder using 7 = A|ii|~2 + 70 and curve fit of these parameters 78 4.8 Curve fits of 7(14) for a perfect cylinder using 7 = A|u|~2 + 70 and using the results of a fit for A and 70 79 4.9 Curve fits of j(u) for a circular bump using 7 = A|u|_A + 70 80 4.10 Fit parameters for a circular bump using 7 = A|u|~A + 70 and curve fit of these parameters 81 4.11 Curve fits of j(u) for a circular bump using 7 = A|u|-A+70 and using the results of a fit for A, 70 and A 82 4.12 Fit parameters for a circular bump using 7 = + 70 and curve fit of these parameters 83 4.13 Curve fits of 7(14) for a circular bump using 7 = -f 70 and using the results of a fit for A and 70 84 vii Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to my supervisor, Philip Stamp, for his invaluable help and advice, and to Mona Berciu, for agreeing to be my second reader. Thanks to my friend and colleague Rodrigo Pereira with whom I had fruitful discussions on my research topic. In the proofreading of this thesis, I have had the help and advice of many friends and colleagues.