We present experimental results on turbulence generated in thin fluid layers in the presence of a large-scale coherent flow, or a spectral condensate. It is shown that the condensate modifies the third-order velocity moment in a much wider interval of scales than the second one. The modification may include the change of sign of the third moment in the inverse cascade. This observation may help resolve a controversy on the energy flux in mesoscale atmospheric turbulence (10-500 km): to recover a correct energy flux from the third velocity moment one needs first to subtract the coherent flow. We find that the condensate also increases the velocity flatness.
During direct numerical simulation of the isotropic turbulence of surface gravity waves in the framework of Hamiltonian equations formation of the long wave background or condensate was observed. Exponents of the direct cascade spectra at the different levels of an artificial condensate suppression show a tendency to become closer to the prediction of the wave turbulence theory at lower levels of condensate. A simple qualitative explanation of the mechanism of this phenomenon is proposed.
Instabilities of fluid flows often generate turbulence. Using extensive direct numerical simulations, we study two-dimensional turbulence driven by a wavenumber-localised instability superposed on stochastic forcing, in contrast to previous studies of state-independent forcing. As the contribution of the instability forcing, measured by a parameter $γ$, increases, the system undergoes two transitions. For $γ$ below a first threshold, a regular large-scale vortex condensate forms. Above this threshold, shielded vortices (SVs) emerge within the condensate. At a second, larger value of $γ$, the c…
After over a decade of experiments generating and studying the physics of quantized vortices in atomic gas Bose-Einstein condensates, research is beginning to focus on the roles of vortices in quantum turbulence, as well as other measures of quantum turbulence in atomic condensates. Such research directions have the potential to uncover new insights into quantum turbulence, vortices and superfluidity, and also explore the similarities and differences between quantum and classical turbulence in entirely new settings. Here we present a critical assessment of theoretical and experimental studies …
An inverse turbulent cascade in a restricted two-dimensional periodic domain leads to the creation of condensate -- a pair of coherent system-size vortices. We perform extensive numerical simulations of this system and carry on detailed theoretical analysis based upon momentum and energy exchanges between the turbulence fluctuations and the mean coherent condensate (vortices). The theory predicts the vortex profile and amplitude which perfectly agree with the numerical data.
The occurrence of system-scale coherent structures, so-called condensates, is a well-known phenomenon in two-dimensional turbulence. Here, the transition to condensate formation is investigated as a function of the magnitude of the force and for different types of forcing. Random forces with constant mean energy input lead to a supercritical transition, while forcing through a small-scale linear instability results in a subcritical transition with bistability and hysteresis. That is, the transition to condensate formation in two-dimensional turbulence is nonuniversal. For the supercritical cas…
We study the thermodynamic equilibrium spectra of the Charney- Hasegawa-Mima (CHM) equation in its weakly nonlinear limit. In this limit, the equation has three adiabatic invariants, in contrast to the two invariants of the 2D Euler or Gross-Pitaevskii equations, which are examples for comparison. We explore how the third invariant considerably enriches the variety of equilibrium spectra that the CHM system can access. In particular we characterise the singular limits of these spectra in which condensates occur, i.e. a single Fourier mode (or pair of modes) accumulate(s) a macroscopic fraction…
We theoretically study the development of quantum turbulence from two counter-propagating superfluids of miscible Bose-Einstein condensates by numerically solving the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations. When the relative velocity exceeds a critical value, the counter-superflow becomes unstable and quantized vortices are nucleated, which leads to isotropic quantum turbulence consisting of two superflows. It is shown that the binary turbulence can be realized experimentally in a trapped system.
Disentangling the evolution of a coherent mean-flow and turbulent fluctuations, interacting through the non-linearity of the Navier-Stokes equations, is a central issue in fluid mechanics. It affects a wide range of flows, such as planetary atmospheres, plasmas or wall-bounded flows, and hampers turbulence models. We consider the special case of a two-dimensional flow in a periodic box, for which the mean-flow, a pair of box-size vortices called \emph{condensate}, emerges from turbulence through an inverse cascade process. As was recently shown, a perturbative closure describes correctly the c…
We investigate the process of formation of large-scale structures in a turbulent flow confined in a thin layer. By means of direct numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations, forced at an intermediate scale, we obtain a split of the energy cascade in which one fraction of the input goes to small scales generating the three-dimensional direct cascade. The remaining energy flows to large scales producing the inverse cascade which eventually causes the formation of a quasi two-dimensional condensed state at the largest horizontal scale. Our results shows that the connection between the …
We examine the steady state of turbulent flows in thin layers using direct numerical simulations. It is shown that when the layer thickness is smaller than a critical height, an inverse cascade arises which leads to the formation of a steady state condensate where most of the energy is concentrated in the largest scale of the system. For layers of thickness smaller than a second critical height, the flow at steady state becomes exactly two-dimensional. The amplitude of the condensate is studied as a function of layer thickness and Reynolds number. Bi-stability and intermittent bursts are found…
We review numerical studies of quantum turbulence. Quantum turbulence is currently one of the most important problems in low temperature physics and is actively studied for superfluid helium and atomic Bose--Einstein condensates. A key aspect of quantum turbulence is the dynamics of condensates and quantized vortices. The dynamics of quantized vortices in superfluid helium are described by the vortex filament model, while the dynamics of condensates are described by the Gross--Pitaevskii model. Both of these models are nonlinear, and the quantum turbulent states of interest are far from equili…
Energy spectra and cascade in the spin turbulence of a driven spinor Bose-Einstein condensate
Seoul National University（首尔大学）；NextQuantum, Seoul National University（首尔大学 NextQuantum）；Institute of Applied Physics, Seoul National University（首尔大学应用物理研究所）
Using direct numerical simulations of rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection, we explore the transitions between turbulent states from a 3D flow state towards a quasi-2D condensate known as the large-scale vortex (LSV). We vary the Rayleigh number $Ra$ as control parameter and study the system response (strength of the LSV) in terms of order parameters assessing the energetic content in the flow and the upscale energy flux. By sensitively probing the boundaries of the region of existence of the LSV in parameter space, we find discontinuous transitions and we identify the presence of a hysteresis …
Quantum turbulence (QT) generated by the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in binary immiscible ultracold 87Rb atoms at zero temperature is studied theoretically. We show that the quantum vortex tangle is qualitatively different from previously considered superfluids, which reveals deep relations between QT and classical turbulence. The present QT may be generated at arbitrarily small Mach numbers, which is a unique property not found in previously studied superfluids. By numerical solution of the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations we find that the Kolmogorov scaling law holds for the incompressible…
We analyse the formation and the dynamics of quantum turbulence in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate with a Josephson junction barrier modelled using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We show that a sufficiently high initial superfluid density imbalance leads to randomisation of the dynamics and generation of turbulence, namely, the formation of a quasi-1D dispersive shock consisting of a train of grey solitons that eventually breakup into chains of distinct quantised vortices of alternating vorticity followed by random turbulent flow. The Josephson junction barrier allows us to create t…
We numerically simulate the free decay of two-dimensional quantum turbulence in a large, homogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate. The large number of vortices, the uniformity of the density profile and the absence of boundaries (where vortices can drift out of the condensate) isolate the annihilation of vortex-antivortex pairs as the only mechanism which reduces the number of vortices, $\Nv$, during the turbulence decay. The results clearly reveal that vortex annihilation is a four-vortex process, confirming the decay law $\Nv \sim t^{-1/3}$ where $t$ is time, which was inferred from experiments …
Turbulence and far-from-equilibrium equation of state of Bogoliubov waves in Bose-Einstein Condensates
Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Institut de Physique de Nice (INPHYNI)（尼斯蔚蓝海岸大学，法国国家科学研究中心，尼斯物理研究所）；Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange（尼斯蔚蓝海岸大学，尼斯蔚蓝海岸天文台，法国国家科学研究中心，拉格朗日实验室）
We study two-dimensional quantum turbulence in miscible binary Bose-Einstein condensates in either a harmonic trap or a steep-wall trap through the numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equations. The turbulence is generated through a Gaussian stirring potential. When the condensates have unequal intra-component coupling strengths or asymmetric trap frequencies, the turbulent condensates undergo a dramatic decay dynamics to an interlaced array of vortex-antidark structures, a quasi-equilibrium state, of like-signed vortices with an extended size of the vortex core. The time of formatio…
In the framework of the focusing Nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation we study numerically the nonlinear stage of the modulation instability (MI) of the condensate. As expected, the development of the MI leads to formation of "integrable turbulence" [V.E. Zakharov, Turbulence in integrable systems, Stud. in Appl. Math. 122, no. 3, 219-234, (2009)]. We study the time evolution of it's major characteristics averaged across realizations of initial data - the condensate solution seeded by small random noise with fixed statistical properties. The measured quantities are: (1) wave-action spectrum an…
Here we study how coherence appears in a system driven by noise at small scales. In the wave turbulence modeled by the Gross-Pitaevskii / nonlinear Schrödinger equation, we observe states with correlation scales less than the system size but much larger than the excitation scale. We call such state precondensate to distinguish it from condensate defined as a system-wide coherent state. Both condensate and precondensate are characterized by large scale phase coherence and narrow distribution of amplitudes. When one excites small scales, precondensate is achieved relatively quickly by an inverse…
In many geophysical and astrophysical flows, suppression of fluctuations along one direction of the flow drives a quasi-2D upscale flux of kinetic energy, leading to the formation of strong vortex condensates at the largest scales. Recent studies have shown that the transition towards this condensate state is hysteretic, giving rise to a limited bistable range in which both the condensate state as well as the regular 3D state can exist at the same parameter values. In this work, we use direct numerical simulations of thin-layer flow to investigate whether this bistable range survives as the do…
We study theoretically the instability of countersuperflow, i.e., two counterpropagating miscible superflows, in uniform two-component Bose-Einstein condensates. Countersuperflow instability causes mutual friction between the superfluids, causing a momentum exchange between the two condensates, when the relative velocity of the counterflow exceeds a critical value. The momentum exchange leads to nucleation of vortex rings from characteristic density patterns due to the nonlinear development of the instability. Expansion of the vortex rings drastically accelerates the momentum exchange, leading…
Bose-Einstein condensates with their superfluidity property provide an interesting parallel to classical fluids. Due to the Kolmogorov spectrum of homogeneous turbulence the statistics of the incompressible velocity field is of great interest, but in superfluids obtaining quantities such as the statistics of the velocity field from the macroscopic wavefunction turns out be a complicated task; therefore, most of the work up to now has been numerical in nature. We made use of the Weak Wave Turbulence (WWT) theory, which provides the statistics of the macroscopic wavefunction, to obtain the stati…
The collective effects of microswimmers in active suspensions result in active turbulence, a spatiotemporally chaotic dynamics at mesoscale, which is characterized by the presence of vortices and jets at scales much larger than the characteristic size of the individual active constituents. To describe this dynamics, Navier-Stokes-based one-fluid models driven by small-scale forces have been proposed. Here, we provide a justification of such models for the case of dense suspensions in two dimensions (2d). We subsequently carry out an in-depth numerical study of the properties of one-fluid model…
We study the scaling properties of two-dimensional turbulence using dimensional analysis. In particular, we consider the energy spectrum both at large and small scales and in the "inertial ranges" for the cases of freely decaying and forced turbulence. We also investigate the properties of an "energy condensate" at large scales in spatially finite systems. Finally, an analysis of a possible inverse cascade in freely decaying turbulence is presented.
We present a numerical study of turbulence in Bose-Einstein condensates within the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We concentrate on the direct energy cascade in forced-dissipated systems. We show that behavior of the system is very sensitive to the properties of the model at the scales greater than the forcing scale, and we identify three different universal regimes: (1) a non-stationary regime with condensation and transition from a four-wave to a three-wave interaction process when the largest scales are not dissipated, (2) a steady weak wave turbulence regime when largest scales are dissipat…
We report an exact unique constant-flux power-law analytical solution of the wave kinetic equation for the turbulent energy spectrum, $E(k)=C_1 \sqrt{\varepsilon\, a c_{\rm s} }/k$, of acoustic waves in 2D with almost linear dispersion law, $ω_k = c_{\rm s} k[1+(ak)^2]$, $ ak \ll 1$. Here $\varepsilon$ is the energy flux over scales, and $C_1$ is the universal constant which was found analytically. Our theory describes, for example, acoustic turbulence in 2D Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The corresponding 3D counterpart of turbulent acoustic spectrum was found over half a century ago, howe…
In two-dimensional forced Navier-Stokes turbulence, energy cascades to the largest scales in the system to form a pair of coherent vortices known as the Bose condensate. We show, both numerically and analytically, that the energy condensation saturates and the system reaches a statistically stationary state. The time scale of saturation is inversely proportional to the viscosity and the saturation energy level is determined by both the viscosity and the force. We further show that, without sufficient resolution to resolve the small-scale enstrophy spectrum, numerical simulations can give a spu…
Despite the prominence of Onsager's point-vortex model as a statistical description of 2D classical turbulence, a first-principles development of the model for a realistic superfluid has remained an open problem. Here we develop a mapping of a system of quantum vortices described by the homogeneous 2D Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) to the point-vortex model, enabling Monte-Carlo sampling of the vortex microcanonical ensemble. We use this approach to survey the full range of vortex states in a 2D superfluid, from the vortex-dipole gas at positive temperature to negative-temperature states exhi…
There exist inherent mechanisms of spontaneous breaking of local mirror symmetry (parity) in fluid turbulence. A good example is Kerr's mechanism based on the inviscid vortex interactions. Such interactions can result in the appearance of the local adjacent regions with strong oppositely signed helicity, while the global (net) helicity still remains zero due to the global mirror symmetry. It is shown, using results of direct numerical simulations and laboratory measurements, that the spontaneous breaking of local mirror symmetry can dominate turbulent dynamics in the superfluid helium II and i…
Large-scale turbulence in fluid layers and other quasi-two-dimensional compressible systems consists of planar vortices and waves. Separately, wave turbulence usually produces a direct energy cascade, while solenoidal planar turbulence transports energy to large scales by an inverse cascade. Here, we consider turbulence at finite Mach numbers when the interaction between acoustic waves and vortices is substantial. We employ solenoidal pumping at intermediate scales and show how both direct and inverse energy cascades are formed starting from the pumping scale. We show that there is an inverse …
We stir vortices into a trapped quasi two-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensate by moving three laser stirrers. We apply stirring protocols introduced by Boyland et. al. (2000) that efficiently build in topological chaos in classical fluids and are classified as Pseudo-Anosov stirring protocols. These are compared to their inefficient mixing counterparts, finite-order stirring protocols. We investigate if inefficient stirring protocols result in a more clustered distribution of vortices. The efficiency with which vortices are 'mixed' or distributed in a condensate is important for invest…
We investigate formation of Bose-Einstein condensates under non-equilibrium conditions using numerical simulations of the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation. For this, we set initial random weakly nonlinear excitations and the forcing at high wave numbers, and study propagation of the turbulent spectrum toward the low wave numbers. Our primary goal is to compare the results for the evolving spectrum with the previous results obtained for the kinetic equation of weak wave turbulence. We demonstrate existence of a regime for which good agreement with the wave turbulence results is found…
Here we report the first evidence of the inverse energy cascade in a flow dominated by 3D motions. Experiments are performed in thick fluid layers where turbulence is driven electromagnetically. It is shown that if the free surface of the layer is not perturbed, the top part of the layer behaves as quasi-2D and supports the inverse energy cascade regardless of the layer thickness. Well below the surface the cascade survives even in the presence of strong 3D eddies developing when the layer depth exceeds half the forcing scale. In a bounded flow at low bottom dissipation, the inverse energy cas…
Interacting systems driven far from equilibrium tend to evolve to steady states exhibiting large-scale structure and order. In two-dimensional turbulent flow the seemingly random swirling motion of a fluid can evolve towards persistent large-scale vortices. Lars Onsager proposed a model based on statistical mechanics of quantized vortices to explain such behavior. Here we report the first experimental confirmation of Onsager's model of turbulence. We drag a grid barrier through an oblate superfluid Bose--Einstein condensate to generate non-equilibrium distributions of vortices. We observe an i…
In a two-dimensional (2D) classical fluid, a large-scale flow structure emerges out of turbulence, which is known as the inverse energy cascade where energy flows from small to large length scales. An interesting question is whether this phenomenon can occur in a superfluid, which is inviscid and irrotational by nature. Atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of highly oblate geometry provide an experimental venue for studying 2D superfluid turbulence, but their full investigation has been hindered due to a lack of the circulation sign information of individual quantum vortices in a turbulent …
We study the relaxation dynamics of an isolated zero temperature quasi-two-dimensional superfluid Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) that is imprinted with a spatially random distribution of quantum vortices. Following a period of vortex annihilation, we find that the remaining vortices self-organise into two macroscopic coherent `Onsager vortex' clusters that are stable indefinitely. We demonstrate that this occurs due to a novel physical mechanism --- the evaporative heating of the vortices --- that results in a negative temperature phase transition in the vortex degrees of freedom. At the end o…
The past decade has seen atomic Bose-Einstein condensates emerge as a promising prototype system to explore the quantum mechanical form of turbulence, buoyed by a powerful experimental toolbox to control and manipulate the fluid, and the amenity to describe the system from first-principles. This article presents an overview of quantum turbulence in atomic condensates, from its history and fundamental motivations, its characteristics and key results to date, and finally to some promising future directions.
Weak Alfvenic turbulence in a periodic domain is considered as a mixed state of Alfven waves interacting with the two-dimensional (2D) condensate. Unlike in standard treatments, no spectral continuity between the two is assumed and indeed none is found. If the 2D modes are not directly forced, k^{-2} and k^{-1} spectra are found for the Alfven waves and the 2D modes, respectively, with the latter less energetic than the former. The wave number at which their energies become comparable marks the transition to strong turbulence. For imbalanced energy injection, the spectra are similar and the El…
The flow of an electrically conducting fluid in a thin disc under the action of an azimuthal Lorentz force is studied experimentally. At small forcing, the Lorentz force is balanced by either viscosity or inertia, yielding quasi-Keplerian velocity profiles. For very large current and moderate magnetic field, we observe a new regime, fully turbulent, which exhibits large fluctuations and a Keplerian mean rotation profile $Ω\sim \frac{\sqrt{IB}}{r^{3/2}}$. In this turbulent regime, the dynamics is typical of thin layer turbulence, characterized by a direct cascade of energy towards the small sca…
