On the possibility of vortex creation in superfluid systems by crossed homogeneous magnetic and inhomogeneous electric fields

Abstract

In the article by Shevchenko and A. S. Rukin, Pis'ma v Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 90, 46 (2009), it has been found that quantized vortices in superfluid systems acquire a charge in a magnetic field. A compensating charge with the opposite sign on a surface of the system can be at a macroscopic distance apart from the charge of the vortex. It is shown that as a result the total energy of the vortex charge and the compensating charge can be negative in the presence of an inhomogeneous electric field, normal to a homogeneous magnetic field. The conditions under which this leads to the spontaneous emergence of quantized vortices in the system are found. A possibility to observe the effect in He II, Bose gases of alkali metals and systems with spatially indirect excitons is discussed.