Characteristics of Two-Dimensional Quantum Turbulence in a Compressible Superfluid

Abstract

Under suitable forcing a fluid exhibits turbulence, with characteristics strongly affected by the fluid's confining geometry. Here we study two-dimensional quantum turbulence in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate in an annular trap. As a compressible quantum fluid, this system affords a rich phenomenology, allowing coupling between vortex and acoustic energy. Small-scale stirring generates an experimentally observed disordered vortex distribution that evolves into large-scale flow in the form of a persistent current. Numerical simulation of the experiment reveals additional characteristics of two-dimensional quantum turbulence: spontaneous clustering of same-circulation vortices, and an incompressible energy spectrum with $k^{-5/3}$ dependence for low wavenumbers $k$ and $k^{-3}$ dependence for high $k$.