I was reading this article the other day ..
Physicists hit on mathematical description of superfluid dynamics
Its mainly about modelling of superfluids (liquid He-4 at close to absolute zero temperatures) .. which is interesting from a Chaos/Complexity Theory perspective, but it also contains these (more interesting ?) words …
Quote:
… has devised a theoretical framework that explains the real-time behavior of superfluids that are made of fermions – subatomic particles such as electrons, protons and neutrons that are basic building blocks of nature.
Such superfluids are found in neutron stars, which rotate between one and 1,000 times a second. These stars, also called pulsars, have 50 percent greater mass than the sun but are packed so densely that one can occupy an area only about the size of a city such as Seattle, said Aurel Bulgac, a UW physics professor and lead author of a paper in the June 10 edition of Science that details the work.
As a neutron star rotates, the superfluid on the surface behaves quite differently than a liquid would on the surface of the Earth. As the rotational speed increases the fluid opens a series of small vortices. As the vortices assemble into triangular patterns, the triangles build a lattice structure within the superfluid.
"When you reach the correct speed, you'll create one vortex in the middle," Bulgac said. "And as you increase the speed, you will increase the number of vortices. But it always occurs in steps."
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Fascinating …
I don't think I've ever seen any scientist just blurt out words describing the surface composition of neutron stars in such an off-hand way !
I also found the description of the vortices in the surface concoction intriguing !
Certainly makes one imagine what might be going on with Pulsars/Neutrons when one has some kind of description of the composition of these things !
Cheers
