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Kinematic and thermodynamic stability of vortices in superfluids

University of British Columbia

The equations of motion of vortices in an ideal two-dimensional fluid are derived, and the laws of conservation associated with the motion are discussed. Two regions of flow are considered, an infinite region and a region bounded on the outside by a circle. The kinetic energy and angular momentum of a vortex fluid in these two regions are calculated. A Lagrangian formalism is introduced in order to discuss the symmetry transformations of vortex systems and their associated conservation laws. The kinematic stability of rigidly rotating polygonal configurations of quantized vortices is determined, and the states of thermodynamic equilibrium of a rotating superfluid are found for low angular velocities, resulting in the calculation of the spectrum of critical angular velocities for the creation of one, two, and three vortices.

Text

2010-02-16

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20264

Physics

University of British Columbia

Graduate