Non-Equilibrium Vortex Dynamics

Project Level: PhD

Recent work in the UQ BEC lab has benchmarked new capabilities for the creation and manipulation of quantised vortices in quasi-2D superfluids. For example, the lab recently observed high-energy vortex clusters, associated with absolute negative temperature states of the vortex ensemble; for example see our publication in Science.

This project will expand the laboratory capabilities for producing arbitrary configurations of vortices and examining their dynamics. Deep analogies to the fractional quantum Hall effect, experimental understanding of the low-energy excitations of a vortex gas, and questions about vortex effective mass are all aims of this research direction.