Physicists first created a new type of camera to see quantum vortices

Researchers from Lancaster have developed a camera-like device. It is capable of displaying

mini-whirlpools in quantum liquids. Its properties are determined by quantum effects. An example of such a liquid is liquid helium at a temperature close to absolute zero (-273.15 °C).

Vortexes are formed in stirred liquids,When water flows into a drain hole, they can also be seen in tornadoes and cyclones. They are unpredictable, unlike those that form with quantum liquids. Such vortices are always the same size. This phenomenon can be observed due to quantum effects that only occur at very low temperatures. For example, vortices can be observed in superfluid liquid helium-3.

The problem is that quantum vortices, by their nature, are too small to be captured without tracer particles by a conventional camera—until now.

Physicists from Lancaster University underDr. Theo Noble's leadership has developed a new type of camera that uses special particles to image clusters of vortices instead of light. Their work was published in the journal Physical Review B.

The camera is an array of five pixelsby five. Each of the 25 pixels is a millimeter-sized cylindrical cavity with a quartz tuning fork in the middle. The team tested the chamber on vortices created by vibrating wire in the form of ultra-cold helium.

“Essentially, we are measuring the shadows cast by quantum vortices on the camera,” explains Dr. Theo Noble, one of the study’s authors.

Even with a small number of pixels, newThe camera found that most vortices formed above the vibrating wire, not around it. The head of Lancaster University's ultra-low temperature laboratory, Dr Viktor Zepelin, said this was not predicted by either mathematical theories or numerical modeling.

Now scientists want to create a 90-pixel camerawith high enough resolution to capture details of the development and decay of carefully prepared collections of vortices. This ability to observe the dynamics of superfluid helium-3 will improve our understanding of the turbulent motion of quantum fluids and turbulence in general.

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