Abstract
There has been much interest recently in the mechanism by which superfluid (quantum) turbulence can decay in liquid 4He at very low temperatures, where mutual friction has a negligible effect. As in classical turbulence, energy must probably flow from larger to smaller length scales, and it has been suggested that on the smallest scales the relevant motion is a Kelvin wave on a quantized vortex with wave number greater than the inverse vortex spacing. By considering the behaviour of a simple model it is shown by computer simulations how energy can flow to shorter length scales (higher wave numbers) in a system of Kelvin waves, and how this process can lead to a remarkably simple Kelvin-wave energy spectrum. A discussion is included of the relevance of this model to the decay of superfluid grid turbulence at a very low temperature.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
R. J. Donnelly Quantized Vortices in Helium II Cambridge University Press 1991
W. F. Vinen J. J. Niemela J. Low Temp. Physics 128 167 2002 and references therein
T. Araki A. Tsubota S. K. Nemirovskii Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 145301 2002
W. F. Vinen Phys. Rev. B 64 134520 2001
S. K. Nemirovskii J. Pakleza W. Poppe Russian J. Eng. Thermophysics 3 369 1993
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vinen, W.F., Tsubota, M. & Mitani, A. Kelvin-Wave Cascades in Turbulent Superfluid 4He at Very Low Temperatures. Journal of Low Temperature Physics 134, 457–462 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOLT.0000012595.85582.58
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOLT.0000012595.85582.58