Search Rutherford Discovery Fellowship awards 2010–2017

Public Summary: Sparked by the experimental achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), a new field of ultra-cold atoms has emerged. A BEC typically consists of millions of neutral atoms at a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, contained in a vacuum chamber, and levitated in space by magnetic or optical fields. At these ultra-low temperatures, the atoms undergo a phase transition, coalescing into a mesoscopic quantum droplet exhibiting the remarkable property of frictionless flow, known as superfluidity. When a superfluid rotates, it does so by creating a quantized vortex resembling a tiny fluid whirlpool or tornado. Mutually attracted vortices and anti-vortices can pair up into vortex dipoles that carry linear momentum and are central to understanding turbulent flows. The scattering of vortex dipoles, the potential for using focussed sound pulses to create vortex dipoles, and the nature of forces acting on individual vortices are central questions at the forefront of superfluid physics. Using a newly developed theory of ultra-cold atomic superfluids we will investigate these processes to give fundamental insights into the nature of quantum turbulence and the interface between vortex dynamics and superfluidity.