Quantum dynamics of a single vortex

Vortices occur naturally in a wide range of gases and fluids, from macroscopic to microscopic scales. In Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute atomic gases, superfluid helium and superconductors, the existence of vortices is a consequence of the quantum nature of the system. Quantized vortices of supercurrent are generated by magnetic flux penetrating the material, and play a key role in determining the material properties and the performance of superconductor-based devices. At high temperatures the dynamics of such vortices are essentially classical, while at low temperatures previous experiments have suggested collective quantum dynamics. However, the question of whether vortex tunnelling occurs at low temperatures has been addressed only for large collections of vortices. Here we study the quantum dynamics of an individual vortex in a superconducting Josephson junction. By measuring the statistics of the vortex escape from a controllable pinning potential, we demonstrate the existence of quantized levels of the vortex energy within the trapping potential well and quantum tunnelling of the vortex through the pinning barrier.     

Double-quantum vortex in superfluid 3He-A

Linear defects are generic in continuous media. In quantum systems they appear as topological line defects which are associated with a circulating persistent current. In relativistic quantum field theories they are known as cosmic strings, in superconductors as quantized flux lines, and in superfluids and low-density Bose-Einstein condensates as quantized vortex lines. A conventional quantized vortex line consists of a central core around which the phase of the order parameter winds by 27(pi)n, while within the core the order parameter vanishes or is depleted from the bulk value. Usually vortices are singly quantized (that is, have n = 1). But it has been theoretically predicted that, in superfluid 3He-A, vortex lines are possible that have n = 2 and continuous structure, so that the orientation of the multicomponent order parameter changes smoothly throughout the vortex while the amplitude remains constant. Here we report direct proof, based on high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, that the most common vortex line in 3He-A has n = 2. One vortex line after another is observed to form in a regular periodic process, similar to a phase-slip in the Josephson effect.     

剪切层区域旋涡空化的发生机理

为研究高速水流中旋涡空化的形成机理 ,用高速摄影和录像的方法观察了发生在中空射流阀内部流场的空化现象 ,采用数值模拟的方法计算了阀内部非定常粘性流场。发现流场中空化的产生与流动分离以及所伴随的剪切层区域的非定常旋涡运动有关。旋涡空化水流中有两种空穴 ,即空化泡与空化旋涡。在剪切层非定常旋涡从流动分离点产生的过程中 ,旋涡形成区域的压力进一步降低 ,在空化条件下产生大量的空泡 ,部分空泡被旋涡所包容 ,从而形成空化旋涡     

Macroscopically ordered state in an exciton system

There is a rich variety of quantum liquids -- such as superconductors, liquid helium and atom Bose-Einstein condensates -- that exhibit macroscopic coherence in the form of ordered arrays of vortices. Experimental observation of a macroscopically ordered electronic state in semiconductors has, however, remained a challenging and relatively unexplored problem. A promising approach for the realization of such a state is to use excitons, bound pairs of electrons and holes that can form in semiconductor systems. At low densities, excitons are Bose-particles, and at low temperatures, of the order of a few kelvin, excitons can form a quantum liquid -- that is, a statistically degenerate Bose gas or even a Bose-Einstein condensate. Here we report photoluminescence measurements of a quasi-two-dimensional exciton gas in GaAs/AlGaAs coupled quantum wells and the observation of a macroscopically ordered exciton state. Our spatially resolved measurements reveal fragmentation of the ring-shaped emission pattern into circular structures that form periodic arrays over lengths up to 1 mm.     

飞行器头部的涡系结构研究

通过三阶精度离散格式求解N-S方程,模拟了飞行器头部涡系流动过程,展示了不同层次的涡系结构.结果表明,较小攻角时,表面不同的鞍点与结点拓扑组合,在飞行器头部空间演化出不同的涡系.稳定螺旋点在空间演化为羊角涡,促使对称主涡向非对称发展.较大攻角时,头部空间演化出U型马蹄涡,通过牵制主涡涡核,抑制主涡向非对称发展.中等攻角时,飞行器头部既形成羊角涡,又形成马蹄涡,二者对主涡的作用是相反的.     

Enhancement of the high-magnetic-field critical current density of superconducting MgB2 by proton irradiation

Magnesium diboride, MgB2, has a relatively high superconducting transition temperature, placing it between the families of low- and high-temperature (copper oxide based) superconductors. Supercurrent flow in MgB2 is unhindered by grain boundaries, making it potentially attractive for technological applications in the temperature range 20-30 K. But in the bulk material, the critical current density (Jc) drops rapidly with increasing magnetic field strength. The magnitude and field dependence of the critical current are related to the presence of structural defects that can 'pin' the quantized magnetic vortices that permeate the material, and a lack of natural defects in MgB2 may be responsible for the rapid decline of Jc with increasing field strength. Here we show that modest levels of atomic disorder induced by proton irradiation enhance the pinning of vortices, thereby significantly increasing Jc at high field strengths. We anticipate that either chemical doping or mechanical processing should generate similar levels of disorder, and so achieve performance that is technologically attractive in an economically viable way.     

具有液氮和蒸发氦气冷却屏的液氦容器的最佳热设计—能量优化法

本文提出了一种液氦容器最佳热设计的方法,它适用于利用液氮和蒸发的氦气冷却支撑和多层绝热的液氦容器。用以确定热交换器在支撑上和多层绝热间的最佳位置,可使液氮机和液氦机所消耗的总能量为最小。采用的优化方法是拉格朗日乘数法。并进行了归一化处理使得出的结果能适用于不同效率的液氮机和液氦机以及不同大小的杜瓦。对具有不锈钢支撑和环氧玻璃纤维支撑的液氦容器分别进行了计算,其计算结果用曲线表示,可便于设计者使用。     

Gravity modes as a way to distinguish between hydrogen- and helium-burning red giant stars

Red giants are evolved stars that have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in their cores and instead burn hydrogen in a surrounding shell. Once a red giant is sufficiently evolved, the helium in the core also undergoes fusion. Outstanding issues in our understanding of red giants include uncertainties in the amount of mass lost at the surface before helium ignition and the amount of internal mixing from rotation and other processes. Progress is hampered by our inability to distinguish between red giants burning helium in the core and those still only burning hydrogen in a shell. Asteroseismology offers a way forward, being a powerful tool for probing the internal structures of stars using their natural oscillation frequencies. Here we report observations of gravity-mode period spacings in red giants that permit a distinction between evolutionary stages to be made. We use high-precision photometry obtained by the Kepler spacecraft over more than a year to measure oscillations in several hundred red giants. We find many stars whose dipole modes show sequences with approximately regular period spacings. These stars fall into two clear groups, allowing us to distinguish unambiguously between hydrogen-shell-burning stars (period spacing mostly ～ 50 seconds) and those that are also burning helium (period spacing ～ 100 to 300 seconds).     

平面涡旋光叠加形成复合涡旋的理论分析

复合涡旋可以通过不同的光学涡旋叠加产生,通过两束平面涡旋共线叠加,对两束平面光学涡旋的叠加作了理论分析.讨论了不同情况下复合涡旋中心的分布情况,通过几何解析法找到了涡旋核重合的两平面涡旋叠加后的复合涡旋中心,从理论上得出,这种叠加方式可以得到圆对称分布的复合涡旋.     

A liquid helium temperature target with a 10 K vapor shield for shock compression experiment in the environment condition of 100 Pa

The shock compression experiment of liquid helium is an available way to gain properties of specimen at high temperatures and pressures.Based on Fluent,a thermal insulation analysis and design of a liquid helium temperature target in the environment condition of 100 Pa for shock compression experiment is performed.Then,a cryogenic target with a 10 K helium vapor shield and a separated vacuum interval is particularly developed.A lowest temperature of 3.63 K and a stable temperature of 3.70 K in the specimen cavity with an accuracy of 0.1 K are obtained by means of continuous flow and vacuum cooling.Both time-consuming and temperature stability are well-suited to the requirements of the shock compression experiment.The results show that the calculated and experimental data well-matched each other.The simulation method may be effective and feasible for the optimal design of the cryogenic target.     

Vortex dynamics in superconducting MgB2 and prospects for applications

The recently discovered superconductor magnesium diboride, MgB2, has a transition temperature, Tc, approaching 40 K, placing it intermediate between the families of low- and high-temperature superconductors. In practical applications, superconductors are permeated by quantized vortices of magnetic flux. When a supercurrent flows, there is dissipation of energy unless these vortices are 'pinned' in some way, and so inhibited from moving under the influence of the Lorentz force. Such vortex motion ultimately determines the critical current density, Jc, which the superconductor can support. Vortex behaviour has proved to be more complicated in high-temperature superconductors than in low-temperature superconductors and, although this has stimulated extensive theoretical and experimental research, it has also impeded applications. Here we describe the vortex behaviour in MgB2, as reflected in Jc and in the vortex creep rate, S, the latter being a measure of how fast the 'persistent' supercurrents decay. Our results show that naturally occurring grain boundaries are highly transparent to supercurrents, a desirable property which contrasts with the behaviour of the high-temperature superconductors. On the other hand, we observe a steep, practically deleterious decline in Jc with increasing magnetic field, which is likely to reflect the high degree of crystalline perfection in our samples, and hence a low vortex pinning energy.     

Spatially resolved electronic structure inside and outside the vortex cores of a high-temperature superconductor

Puzzling aspects of high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors include the prevalence of magnetism in the normal state and the persistence of superconductivity in high magnetic fields. Superconductivity and magnetism generally are thought to be incompatible, based on what is known about conventional superconductors. Recent results, however, indicate that antiferromagnetism can appear in the superconducting state of a high-Tc superconductor in the presence of an applied magnetic field. Magnetic fields penetrate a superconductor in the form of quantized flux lines, each of which represents a vortex of supercurrents. Superconductivity is suppressed in the core of the vortex and it has been suggested that antiferromagnetism might develop there. Here we report the results of a high-field nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) imaging experiment in which we spatially resolve the electronic structure of near-optimally doped YBa2Cu3O7-delta inside and outside vortex cores. Outside the cores, we find strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations, whereas inside we detect electronic states that are rather different from those found in conventional superconductors.     

Outer-core compositional stratification from observed core wave speed profiles

Light elements must be present in the nearly pure iron core of the Earth to match the remotely observed properties of the outer and inner cores. Crystallization of the inner core excludes light elements from the solid, concentrating them in liquid near the inner-core boundary that potentially rises and collects at the top of the core, and this may have a seismically observable signal. Here we present array-based observations of seismic waves sensitive to this part of the core whose wave speeds require there to be radial compositional variation in the topmost 300?km of the outer core. The velocity profile significantly departs from that of compression of a homogeneous liquid. Total light-element enrichment is up to five weight per cent at the top of the core if modelled in the Fe-O-S system. The stratification suggests the existence of a subadiabatic temperature gradient at the top of the outer core.     

Two-photon laser spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium and the antiproton-to-electron mass ratio

Physical laws are believed to be invariant under the combined transformations of charge, parity and time reversal (CPT symmetry). This implies that an antimatter particle has exactly the same mass and absolute value of charge as its particle counterpart. Metastable antiprotonic helium (pHe(+)) is a three-body atom consisting of a normal helium nucleus, an electron in its ground state and an antiproton (p) occupying a Rydberg state with high principal and angular momentum quantum numbers, respectively n and l, such that n?≈?l?+?1?≈?38. These atoms are amenable to precision laser spectroscopy, the results of which can in principle be used to determine the antiproton-to-electron mass ratio and to constrain the equality between the antiproton and proton charges and masses. Here we report two-photon spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium, in which p(3)He(+) and p(4)He(+) isotopes are irradiated by two counter-propagating laser beams. This excites nonlinear, two-photon transitions of the antiproton of the type (n, l)?→?(n?-?2, l?-?2) at deep-ultraviolet wavelengths (λ = 139.8, 193.0 and 197.0?nm), which partly cancel the Doppler broadening of the laser resonance caused by the thermal motion of the atoms. The resulting narrow spectral lines allowed us to measure three transition frequencies with fractional precisions of 2.3-5 parts in 10(9). By comparing the results with three-body quantum electrodynamics calculations, we derived an antiproton-to-electron mass ratio of 1,836.1526736(23), where the parenthetical error represents one standard deviation. This agrees with the proton-to-electron value known to a similar precision.     

获得1.2K低温的实验研究

本文从低温传热的观点出发,通过对减压过程的传热分析和温度分布的测量,提出建立该类低温装置应遵循的基本原则;发现低温实验装置中,主颈管的导热漏热占主导地位,减压过程中冷气流大小对温度分布的影响很敏感,改变了颈口热辐射决定的轴向距离、77K辐射屏位置及屏间距.实验对减压降温过程进行了动态测量,并提出液氦玻璃杜瓦的非正常输入的概念。     

Probable observation of a supersolid helium phase

When liquid (4)He is cooled below 2.176 K, it undergoes a phase transition-Bose-Einstein condensation-and becomes a superfluid with zero viscosity. Once in such a state, it can flow without dissipation even through pores of atomic dimensions. Although it is intuitive to associate superflow only with the liquid phase, it has been proposed theoretically that superflow can also occur in the solid phase of (4)He. Owing to quantum mechanical fluctuations, delocalized vacancies and defects are expected to be present in crystalline solid (4)He, even in the limit of zero temperature. These zero-point vacancies can in principle allow the appearance of superfluidity in the solid. However, in spite of many attempts, such a 'supersolid' phase has yet to be observed in bulk solid (4)He. Here we report torsional oscillator measurements on solid helium confined in a porous medium, a configuration that is likely to be more heavily populated with vacancies than bulk helium. We find an abrupt drop in the rotational inertia of the confined solid below a certain critical temperature. The most likely interpretation of the inertia drop is entry into the supersolid phase. If confirmed, our results show that all three states of matter-gas, liquid and solid-can undergo Bose-Einstein condensation.     

开口断面桥梁颤振稳定性及优化措施机理研究

基于数值计算方法研究了开口断面主梁的颤振稳定性及下稳定板的作用机理.通过对比风洞试验的三分力及颤振临界风速结果,验证数值计算方法的可靠性,借助流场可视化直观地分析了颤振机理及下稳定板的抑制机理.结果 表明:来流在上游栏杆、上游箱室底板及下检修道处分离形成旋涡并向下游发展,期间产生与桥断面运动方向相同的气动力,成为颤振发散主导因素.在桥梁断面增设下稳定板能形成稳定的旋涡,气动力总体做负功,有效地抑制了颤振发散.增设1/4下稳定板,稳定板间形成了稳定的旋涡,气动力在运动周期内持续做负功,而同时增设下中央稳定板和1/4下稳定板在上游检修道与稳定板间形成的旋涡与上表面的旋涡交替主导气动力的方向,气动力先做负功后做正功再做负功.故只增设1/4下稳定板相比同时增设1/4下稳定板和下中央稳定板更有利于改善主梁的颤振稳定性能.研究结果能给同类型桥梁断面颤振抑振措施的选取提供参考.     

Observation of the ideal Josephson effect in superfluid 4He

Superfluids and superconductors are the only states of condensed matter that can be described by a single wavefunction, with a coherent quantum phase Phi. The mass flow in a superfluid can be described by classical hydrodynamics for small flow velocity, but above a critical velocity, quantized vortices are created and the classical picture breaks down. This can be observed for a superfluid flowing through a microscopic aperture when the mass flow is measured as a function of the phase difference across the aperture; the curve resembles a hysteretic sawtooth where each jump corresponds to the creation of a vortex. When the aperture is made small enough, the system can enter the so-called 'ideal' Josephson regime, where the superfluid mass flow becomes a continuous function of the phase difference. This regime has been detected in superfluid 3He, but was hitherto believed to be unobservable, owing to fluctuations, in 4He. Here we report the observation of the ideal Josephson effect in 4He. We study the flow of 4He through an array of micro-apertures and observe a transition to the ideal Josephson regime as the temperature is increased towards the superfluid transition temperature, Tlambda.     

Small-scale structure of the geodynamo inferred from Oersted and Magsat satellite data

The 'geodynamo' in the Earth's liquid outer core produces a magnetic field that dominates the large and medium length scales of the magnetic field observed at the Earth's surface. Here we use data from the currently operating Danish Oersted satellite, and from the US Magsat satellite that operated in 1979/80, to identify and interpret variations in the magnetic field over the past 20 years, down to length scales previously inaccessible. Projected down to the surface of the Earth's core, we found these variations to be small below the Pacific Ocean, and large at polar latitudes and in a region centred below southern Africa. The flow pattern at the surface of the core that we calculate to account for these changes is characterized by a westward flow concentrated in retrograde polar vortices and an asymmetric ring where prograde vortices are correlated with highs (and retrograde vortices with lows) in the historical (400-year average) magnetic field. This pattern is analogous to those seen in a large class of numerical dynamo simulations, except for its longitudinal asymmetry. If this asymmetric state was reached often in the past, it might account for several persistent patterns observed in the palaeomagnetic field. We postulate that it might also be a state in which the geodynamo operates before reversing.     

An intrinsic velocity-independent criterion for superfluid turbulence

Hydrodynamic flow in classical and quantum fluids can be either laminar or turbulent. Vorticity in turbulent flow is often modelled with vortex filaments. While this represents an idealization in classical fluids, vortices are topologically stable quantized objects in superfluids. Superfluid turbulence is therefore thought to be important for the understanding of turbulence more generally. The fermionic 3He superfluids are attractive systems to study because their characteristics vary widely over the experimentally accessible temperature regime. Here we report nuclear magnetic resonance measurements and numerical simulations indicating the existence of sharp transition to turbulence in the B phase of superfluid 3He. Above 0.60T(c) (where T(c) is the transition temperature for superfluidity) the hydrodynamics are regular, while below this temperature we see turbulent behaviour. The transition is insensitive to the fluid velocity, in striking contrast to current textbook knowledge of turbulence. Rather, it is controlled by an intrinsic parameter of the superfluid: the mutual friction between the normal and superfluid components of the flow, which causes damping of the vortex motion.