Vortex Dynamics in Superfluid 4He at Very Low Temperatures

Recently McClintock et al. observed the free decay of a vortex tangle in superfluid ⁴He at mK temperatures. Since the system at such low temperatures is free from normal fluid and usual mutual friction, the mechanism of the free decay is unknown. In order to understand this phenomenon, this work studies numerically the vortex dynamics without the mutual friction. The absence of mutual friction prevents the vortex from smoothing. The resulting kinked structure promotes vortex reconnection, thus making lots of small vortex loops. Such cascade process as breakup of vortices to smaller ones can decay the vortex line density. This paper describes the decay of vortex tangle under the localized induction approximation, and that of four vortex rings under the full nonlocal calculation.