Quantum Ferrofluid Turbulence

Abstract

We study the elementary characteristics of turbulence in a quantum ferrofluid through the context of a dipolar Bose gas condensing from a highly nonequilibrium thermal state. Our simulations reveal that the dipolar interactions drive the emergence of polarized turbulence and density corrugations. The superfluid vortex lines and density fluctuations adopt a columnar or stratified configuration, depending on the sign of the dipolar interactions, with the vortices tending to form in the low-density regions to minimize kinetic energy. When the interactions are dominantly dipolar, the decay of the vortex line length is enhanced, closely following a t^{-3/2} behavior. This system poses exciting prospects for realizing stratified quantum turbulence and new levels of generating and controlling turbulence using magnetic fields.