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Kolmogorov turbulence in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates

Published

Author(s)

Ian Spielman, Mingshu Zhao, Junheng Tao

Abstract

We investigated turbulence in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) using a minimally destructive, impurity injection technique analogous to particle image velocimetry in conventional fluids. Our approach transfers small regions of the BEC into a different hyperfine state, and tracks their displacement yielding the velocity field. This allows us to quantify turbulence in the same way as conventional in fluid dynamics in terms of velocity-velocity correlation functions called velocity structure functions. The observed structure functions obey a Kolmogorov scaling law, in addition the velocity increments show a clear fat-tail non-Gaussian distribution. These results provide direct evidence of large, i.e. inertial, scale quantum turbulence in BECs.
Citation
Nature Physics

Citation

Spielman, I. , Zhao, M. and Tao, J. (2025), Kolmogorov turbulence in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, Nature Physics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=958228 (Accessed October 10, 2025)

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Created February 25, 2025, Updated March 5, 2025
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