Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. (2021) 230: 809-812
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00083-3

Regular Article

Momentum distribution of Vinen turbulence in trapped atomic Bose–Einstein condensates

¹ Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, CP 369, 13560-970, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
² Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, 13565-905, São Carlos, Brazil
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 77843, College Station, TX, USA

^b madeira@ifsc.usp.br

Received: 25 May 2020
Accepted: 5 January 2021
Published online: 8 April 2021

Abstract

The decay of multicharged vortices in trapped Bose–Einstein condensates may lead to a disordered vortex state consistent with the Vinen regime of turbulence, characterized by an absence of large-scale flow and an incompressible kinetic energy spectrum $E\propto k^{-1}$. In this work, we study numerically the dynamics of a three-dimensional harmonically trapped Bose–Einstein condensate excited to a Vinen regime of turbulence through the decay of two doubly-charged vortices. First, we study the momentum distribution and observe the emergence of a power-law behavior $n(k)\propto k^{-3}$ consistent with the coexistence of wave turbulence. We also study the kinetic energy and particle fluxes, which allows us to identify a direct particle cascade associated with the turbulent stage.