arXiv · 1711.03750
Spinning superfluid helium-4 nanodroplets
Abstract
We have studied spinning superfluid $^4$He nanodroplets at zero temperature using Density Functional theory. Due to the irrotational character of the superfluid flow, the shapes of the spinning nanodroplets are very different from those of a viscous normal fluid drop in steady rotation. We show that when vortices are nucleated inside the superfluid droplets, their morphology, which evolves from axisymmetric oblate to triaxial prolate to two-lobed shapes, is in good agreement with experiments. The presence of vortex arrays confers to the superfluid droplets the rigid-body behavior of a normal fluid in steady rotation, and this is the ultimate reason of the surprising good agreement between recent experiments and the classical models used for their description.
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Francesco Ancilotto, Manuel Barranco, Marti Pi. 2017-11-10. Spinning superfluid helium-4 nanodroplets. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.97.184515
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