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| VOLUME 103 (2016) | ISSUE 10 | PAGE 732 |
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The decay of counterflow turbulence in superfluid 4He
J. Gao+*, W. Guo+*, V. S. L'vov×, A. Pomyalov×, L. Skrbek°, E. Varga°, W. F. Vinen∇
+National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, 32310 Florida, USA *Mechanical Engineering Department, Florida State University, 32310 Florida, USA ×Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel °Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, 121 16 Prague, Czech Republic ∇School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT Birmingham, UK
Abstract
The letter summarizes recent experiments on thermal counterflow turbulence in superfluid 4He, emphasizing the observation of turbulence in the normal fluid and its effect on the decay process when the heat flux is turned off. We argue that what is observed as turbulence in the normal fluid is a novel form of coupled turbulence in the superfluid and normal components, with injection of energy on the scales of both the (large) channel width and the (small) spacing between quantized vortices. Although an understanding of this coupled turbulence remains challenging, a theory of its decay is developed which accounts for the experimental observations. |