You can now apply to a competition-funded PhD project on “Vortex-impurity interactions in quantum fluids” supervised by myself. Application deadline is on 15th of January 2021. For more information and how to apply click here, or contact me.

Project overview

Quantum fluids, also called superfluids, arise at very low temperatures (superfluid liquid helium, gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates) or at very high densities (neutron stars) due to quantum mechanics. Such fluids possess striking properties like the absence of viscosity and quantised vortex circulation.

This project aims at studying theoretically and numerically the interactions in a quantum fluid between quantum vortices and impurities, like external particles or other minor superfluid species. Several open questions regarding the mechanical properties of quantum vortices filled with impurities (for instance how they bend), how the impurities fill the quantum vortex core (for example finding their distribution, if they localise, how they mediate vortex reconnections), and their chaotic dynamics will be addressed. Answers will contribute to unveil the physics of amazing experiments currently performed in superfluid liquid helium (UK, US, France, Czech Republic) and Bose-Einstein condensates (Italy, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia).

The research methodology will be inherently interdisciplinary involving physics (quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, nonlinear physics), applied mathematics (fluid mechanics, partial differential equations, integrable systems) and computer science (direct numerical simulations, large data analysis, parallel computing). Dr Proment and, more generally, the Quantum Fluids group at the University of East Anglia, have several ongoing international collaborations on this research topic involving both theoreticians and experimentalists and visits to eventual collaborators will be strongly encouraged.