Charged Tangles of Quantized Vortices in Superfluid 4He

Abstract

We show that turbulence in superfluid 4He at low temperatures can be generated and probed by injected ions trapped on vortex cores. The results of our recent experiments, in which negative ions were injected during short and long periods, in different quantities, and into different applied electric fields, are outlined. Three very different mechanisms of vortex-assisted transport of trapped ions were observed: one is on isolated vortex rings while two others are associated with tangles of vortex lines. It seems there are two different types of vortex tangles that can be characterized by the velocity of ion motion through them: a drifting polarized tangle in a low-dissipation state that mainly advects trapped ions, and a more isotropic tangle in a highly-dissipative state, sustained by a continuous forcing by the ion current in an applied electric field, through which trapped ions move rapidly.