Fluctuations and Correlations of Pure Quantum Turbulence in Superfluid 3He-B

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Aug 8;101(6):065302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.065302. Epub 2008 Aug 8.

Abstract

We describe the first measurements of line-density fluctuations and spatial correlations of quantum turbulence in superfluid 3He-B. All of the measurements are performed in the low-temperature regime, where the normal-fluid density is negligible. The quantum turbulence is generated by a vibrating grid. The vortex-line density is found to have large length-scale correlations, indicating large-scale collective motion of vortices. Furthermore, we find that the power spectrum of fluctuations versus frequency obeys a -5/3 power law which verifies recent speculations that this behavior is a generic feature of fully developed quantum turbulence, reminiscent of the Kolmogorov spectrum for velocity fluctuations in classical turbulence.