2001/11/30 by R. Blaauwgeers, V. B. Eltsov, G. Eska +7 · 187 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical mechanics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Instability #Materials science #Mechanics #Physics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Shear (geology) #Shear flow #Spacecraft and Cryogenic Technologies #Superfluidity #Vortex #Vorticity #cond-mat #gr-qc #hep-ph #physics.flu-dyn #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.89.155301
published in Physical Review Letters 89(15), 155301 (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 4 figures, version submitted to PRL
arxiv created 2002/03/04 · openalex publication_date 2002/09/20 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The first realization of instabilities in the shear flow between two superfluids is examined. The interface separating the A and B phases of superfluid 3He is magnetically stabilized. With uniform rotation we create a state with discontinuous tangential velocities at the interface, supported by the difference in quantized vorticity in the two phases. This state remains stable and nondissipative to high relative velocities, but finally undergoes an instability when an interfacial mode is excited and some vortices cross the phase boundary. The measured properties of the instability are consistent with the classic Kelvin-Helmholtz theory when modified for two-fluid hydrodynamics.