We describe measurements of the decay of pure superfluid turbulence in superfluid 3 He-B, in the low temperature regime where the normal fluid density is negligible. We follow the decay of the turbulence generated by a vibrating grid as detected by vibrating wire resonators. Despite the absence of any classical normal fluid dissipation processes, the decay is consistent with turbulence having the classical Kolmogorov energy spectrum and is remarkably similar to that measured in superfluid 4 He at relatively high temperatures. Further, our results strongly suggest that the decay is governed by the superfluid circulation quantum rather than kinematic viscosity.PACS numbers: 67.57. Fg, 67.57.De, 67.57.Hi In this paper we present the first quantitative measurements of the decay of turbulence in a pure superfluid system. This is a subject of considerable interest since no conventional dissipation mechanisms are available.In a classical fluid, turbulence at high Reynolds numbers is characterized by a range of eddy sizes obeying the well-known Kolmogorov spectrum. On large length scales the motion is dissipationless, whereas on small scales viscosity comes into play. Decay of the turbulence proceeds as energy is transferred by non-linear interactions from the largest non-dissipative length scales d (typically the size of the turbulent region) to smaller length scales where the motion is dissipated by viscous forces. The dissipation per unit volume is given by ρνω 2 where ρ is the fluid density, ν the kinematic viscosity and ω 2 the mean square vorticity [1]. An interesting question, which has received much theoretical speculation [1], is what happens in a pure superfluid with no viscous interactions?Conceptually, turbulence in a superfluid is greatly simplified. Superfluids such as He-II and 3 He-B are described by macroscopic wavefunctions with a well defined phase φ. The superfluid velocity is determined by gradients of the phase, v S = ( /m)∇φ where m is the mass of the entities constituting the superfluid (the mass of a 4 He atom for He-II or twice the mass of a 3 He atom, 2m 3 , for the Cooper pairs in 3 He-B). Consequently, in contrast to classical fluids, superfluid motion is inherently irrotational and vorticity may only be created in the superfluid by the injection of vortex lines. A superfluid vortex is a line defect around which the phase changes by 2π (ignoring here more complex structures such as in 3 He-A). The superfluid order parameter is distorted within the relatively narrow core of the vortex where all the circulation is concentrated. The superfluid flows around the core with a velocity, at distance r, given by v S = /mr corresponding to a quantized circulation κ = h/m. Vortex lines are topological defects. They cannot terminate in free space, and therefore must either form loops or * Electronic Address: s.fisher@lancaster.ac.uk terminate on container walls. Turbulence in a superfluid takes the form of a tangle of vortex lines.Superfluid hydrodynamics is further simplified by the superfluid compon...

The first realization of instabilities in the shear flow between two superfluids is examined. The interface separating the A and B phases of superfluid 3 He is magnetically stabilized. With uniform rotation we create a state with discontinuous tangential velocities at the interface, supported by the difference in quantized vorticity in the two phases. This state remains stable and nondissipative to high relative velocities, but finally undergoes an instability when an interfacial mode is excited and some vortices cross the phase boundary. The measured properties of the instability are consistent with a modified Kelvin-Helmholtz theory.Instabilities in the shear flow between two layers of fluids [1] belong to a class of interfacial hydrodynamics which is attributed to many natural phenomena. Examples are wave generation by wind blowing over water [2], the flapping of a sail or flag in the wind [3,4], and even flow in granular beds [5]. In the hydrodynamics of inviscid and incompressible fluids the transition from calm to wavy interfaces is known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability [6,2]. Since Lord Kelvin's treatise in 1871, difficulties have plagued its description in ordinary fluids, which are viscous and dissipative. They also display a shear-flow instability, but its correspondence with that in the ideal limit is not straightforward. The tangential velocity discontinuity in the shear-flow instability is created by a vortex sheet. In a viscous fluid a planar vortex sheet is not a stable equilibrium state and not a solution of the hydrodynamic equations [7].Superfluids provide a close variation of the ideal inviscid limit considered by Lord Kelvin and thus an environment where the KH theory can be tested. The initial state is a non-dissipative vortex sheet -the interface between two superfluids brought into a state of relative shear flow. So far the only experimentally accessible case where this can be studied in stationary conditions, is the interface between 3 He-A and 3 He-B [8], where the order parameter changes symmetry and magnitude, but is continuous on the scale of the superfluid coherence length ξ ∼ 10 nm. We discuss an experiment, where the two phases slide with respect to each other in a rotating cryostat:3 He-A performs solid-body-like rotation while 3 He-B is in the vortex-free state and thus stationary in the laboratory frame. While increasing the rotation velocity Ω, we record the events when the AB phase boundary becomes unstable -when some circulation from the A-phase crosses the AB interface and vortex lines are introduced into the initially vortex-free B phase. On increasing the rotation further, the instability occurs repeatedly. Such a succession of instability events can be understood as a spin-up of 3 He-B by rotating 3 He-A. Our experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. The AB boundary is forced against a magnetic barrier in a smooth-walled quartz container, by cooling the sample below T AB at constant pressure in a rotating refrigerator. The number of vortices in both phases is indepe...

We present measurements of the drag forces on quartz tuning forks oscillating at low velocities in normal and superfluid 4 He. We have investigated the dissipative drag over a wide range of frequencies, from 6.5 to 600 kHz, by using arrays of forks with varying prong lengths and by exciting the forks in their fundamental and first overtone modes. At low frequencies the behavior is dominated by laminar hydrodynamic drag, governed by the fluid viscosity. At higher frequencies acoustic drag is dominant and is described well by a three-dimensional model of sound emission.

Cooling nanoelectronic structures to millikelvin temperatures presents extreme challenges in maintaining thermal contact between the electrons in the device and an external cold bath. It is typically found that when nanoscale devices are cooled to ∼10 mK the electrons are significantly overheated. Here we report the cooling of electrons in nanoelectronic Coulomb blockade thermometers below 4 mK. The low operating temperature is attributed to an optimized design that incorporates cooling fins with a high electron–phonon coupling and on-chip electronic filters, combined with low-noise electronic measurements. By immersing a Coulomb blockade thermometer in the 3He/4He refrigerant of a dilution refrigerator, we measure a lowest electron temperature of 3.7 mK and a trend to a saturated electron temperature approaching 3 mK. This work demonstrates how nanoelectronic samples can be cooled further into the low-millikelvin range.

We have studied the resonance of a commercial quartz tuning fork immersed in superfluid 4 He, at temperatures between 5 mK and 1 K, and at pressures between zero and 25 bar. The force-velocity curves for the tuning fork show a linear damping force at low velocities. On increasing velocity we see a transition corresponding to the appearance of extra drag due to quantized vortex lines in the superfluid. We loosely call this extra contribution "turbulent drag". The turbulent drag force, obtained after subtracting a linear damping force, is independent of pressure and temperature below 1 K, and is easily fitted by an empirical formula. The transition from linear damping (laminar flow) occurs at a well-defined critical velocity that has the same value for the pressures and temperatures that we have measured. Later experiments using the same fork in a new cell revealed different behaviour, with the velocity stepping discontinuously at the transition, somewhat similar to previous observations on vibrating wire resonators and oscillating spheres. We compare and contrast the observed behaviour of the superfluid drag and inertial forces with that measured for vibrating wires.