Lancaster researchers have developed a camera-like device able to image mini whirlpools in quantum liquids for the first time ever.
Lancaster researchers have developed a camera-like device able to image mini whirlpools in quantum liquids for the first time ever.
Vortices form in stirred fluids, when water drains into a plughole and can also be seen in tornadoes and cyclones.
These vortices are unpredictable, unlike in quantum liquids where the vortices always have the same size due to quantum effects that only arise at very cold temperatures such as with the superfluid liquid helium-3.
The problem is that quantum vortices by their very nature are too small to be captured without tracer particles by a conventional camera – until now.
Physicists at Lancaster University led by Dr Theo Noble have developed a new type of camera which uses particle-like disturbances to take images of collections of vortices instead of light.
Their work is published in the journal Physical Review B.
Read more at: Lancaster University
