Super Fluid

Nobel laureate in physics Richard Feynman once described turbulence as “the most important unsolved problem of classical physics.”

Understanding turbulence in classical fluids like water and air is difficult partly because of the challenge in identifying the vortices swirling within those fluids. Locating vortex tubes and tracking their motion could greatly simplify the modeling of turbulence.

But that challenge is easier in quantum fluids, which exist at low enough temperatures that quantum mechanics — which deals with physics on the scale of atoms or subatomic particles — govern their behavior.

In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Florida State University researchers managed to visualize the vortex tubes in a quantum fluid, findings that could help researchers better understand turbulence in quantum fluids and beyond.

“Our study is important not only because it broadens our understanding of turbulence in general, but also because it could benefit the studies of various physical systems that also involve vortex tubes, such as superconductors and even neutron stars,” said Wei Guo, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the study’s principal investigator.  READ MORE