Nanoscopic jets and filaments of superfluid 4He at zero temperature: A DFT study

The instability of a cryogenic He-4 jet exiting through a small nozzle into vacuum leads to the formation of He-4 drops, which are considered ideal matrices for spectroscopic studies of embedded atoms and molecules. Here, we present a He-density functional theory (DFT) description of droplet formation resulting from jet breaking and contraction of superfluid He-4 filaments. Whereas the fragmentation of long jets closely follows the predictions of linear theory for inviscid fluids, leading to droplet trains interspersed with smaller satellite droplets, the contraction of filaments with an aspect ratio larger than a threshold value leads to the nucleation of vortex rings, which hinder their breakup into droplets.

Automated summary

The instability of a cryogenic He-4 jet leads to the formation of He-4 drops, which are ideal for spectroscopic studies. We propose a He-density functional theory (DFT) to describe the droplet formation resulting from jet breaking and contraction of superfluid He-4 filaments. Fragmentation of long jets follows linear theory, while contraction of filaments with a high aspect ratio leads to the nucleation of vortex rings, hindering droplet breakup.