Solitons and Breathers on Quantized Superfluid Vortices

Dr. Hayder Salman (University of East Anglia)

Thursday 13th March, 2014 14:00-15:00 Maths 326

Abstract

It is well known that quantized superfluid vortices can support excitations in the form of helical Kelvin waves. 
These Kelvin waves play an important role in the dynamics of these vortices and their interactions are believed to be the key mechanism 
for transferring energy in the ultra low temperature regime of superfluid turbulence in 4He. Kelvin waves can be ascribed to low amplitude 
excitations on vortex filaments. 

In this talk I will show that larger amplitude excitations of the vortices can be attributed to solitons propagating along the vortex filament. 
I will review the different class of soliton solutions that can arise as determined analytically from a simplified vortex model based on the 
localized induction approximation. I will show, through numerical simulations, that these solutions persist even in more realistic models 
based on a vortex filament model and the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. 

As a generalisation of these soliton solutions, I also consider the breather solutions on a vortex filament and illustrate how, under certain 
conditions, large amplitude excitations that are localized in space and time can emerge from lower amplitude Kelvin wave like excitations. 

The results presented are quite generic and are believed to be relevant to a wide class of systems ranging from classical to superfluid vortices. 
I will also interpret our results on these nonlinear vortex excitations in the context of the cross-over regime of scales in superfluid turbulence.

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