Abstract
We have used torsional oscillators, containing disk-shaped slabs of superfluid -, to probe the chiral orbital textures created by cooling into the superfluid state while continuously rotating. Comparing the observed flow-driven textural transitions with numerical simulations of possible textures shows that an oriented monodomain texture with antiparallel to the angular velocity is left behind after stopping rotation. The bias toward a particular chirality, while in the vortex state, is due to the inequivalence of energies of vortices of opposite circulation. When spun-up from rest, the critical velocity for vortex nucleation depends on the sense of rotation relative to that of . A different type of vorticity, apparently linked to the slab’s rim by a domain wall, appears when the angular velocity, , is parallel to .
- Received 1 September 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.215301
© 2012 American Physical Society
Viewpoint
Chiral Quantum Textures
Published 19 November 2012
Coherent quantum states of different chirality have been formed and identified in the phase of superfluid helium-, confirming previous theoretical predictions.
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