Transitions and excitations in a superfluid stream passing small impurities

Abstract

We analyse asymptotically and numerically the motion around a single impurity and a network of impurities inserted in a two-dimensional superfluid. The criticality for the break down of superfluidity is shown to occur when it becomes energetically favourable to create a doublet - the limiting case between a vortex pair and a rarefaction pulse on the surface of the impurity. Depending on the characteristics of the potential representing the impurity different excitation scenarios are shown to exist for a single impurity as well as for a lattice of impurities. Depending on the lattice characteristics it is shown that several regimes are possible: dissipationless flow, excitations emitted by the lattice boundary, excitations created in the bulk and the formation of large scale structures.