Visualization of Kelvin waves on quantum vortices

Video credit: E. Fonda, D. P. Meichle, N. T. Ouellette, S. Hormoz, K. R. Sreenivasan, D. P. Lathrop In superfluid helium, vorticity is quantized and constrained on line-like phase singularities, called quantum or quantized vortices. By visualizing the motion of sub-micron frozen particles in superfluid $^{4}$He, we directly observe for the first time the helical Kelvin waves excited after quantized vortex reconnections. We compare the data with self-similar solutions of vortex filament models. We report the results in a fluid dynamic video. For more information: