CAREER: Topological Vortex Dynamics

非技术摘要：复杂的流体流动无处不在，从飞机或汽车周围的空气流动，到风暴的湍急积聚，再到太阳中复杂的带电粒子流动，或者在试图通过核聚变发电的等离子体中。尽管它很重要，但我们对流体流动的理解还远远不完整。理论表明，理解拓扑涡动力学或流动的“结点”可以提供对复杂流动的深刻新理解。这位首席研究人员最近成功地产生了打结的涡流环--类似于打结的烟圈--并利用3D打印、超高速成像和高性能计算的先进技术，这一职业发展奖将首次对流体中的涡流和结节进行实验研究。如果该项目成功，其结果将为建立更好地了解或控制流体流动的方法提供基础。教育部分将利用研究打结物理领域中的拓扑结构的概念，将现代理论和实验方法纳入“经典物理”课程；向公众传播喜悦和科学的重要性；培训高中生、本科生和研究生，特别是在科学中未被充分代表的人。技术摘要这个学院早期职业奖资助了一个项目，该项目将首次在实验中探索流体中的打结涡圈的物理。在我们最近证明有可能产生打结的漩涡环的基础上--类似于绑在一起的烟圈--我们的目标是在实验中建立拓扑流的物理学，从拓扑变化事件的动力学和规则，到探索复杂垂直流动中作为守恒量的螺旋度。“拓扑涡设计者”的观点为流体力学的实验研究提供了一种新的途径，为探索真实物理系统中拓扑场的动力学提供了难得的机会，而真实物理系统的结构可以直接成像。结和场之间的普遍相互作用已经对我们对现代拓扑学的理解产生了深刻的影响，并有望为包括量子场、经典和超流体湍流以及凝聚态物质中的激发在内的广泛系统的物理过程提供更多的见解-包括新的守恒定律。教育部分将把研究打结物理场中的拓扑结构的当代概念与这些概念在实验中视觉上引人注目的实现结合起来，以使芝加哥大学及其他地方的实验和教学课程现代化。

Non-Technical abstract:Complex fluid flows are ubiquitous, from the air flowing around an airplane or a car, to the turbulent build up of storms, to the intricate flows of charged particles in the Sun, or in plasmas used in attempts to generate electricity by nuclear fusion. Despite its importance, our understanding of fluid flow is far from complete. Theory suggests that understanding the Topological Vortex Dynamics or the "knottedness" of a flow can provide profound new understanding of complex flow. Building on the principal investigator's recent success in generating knotted vortex loops -- akin to smoke rings tied into knots -- and utilizing advances in 3D printing, ultrahigh speed imaging, and high performance computing, this Career Development Award will, for the first time, examine vortices and knottedness in fluids experimentally. If this project is successful, its results will provide a basis upon which to build ways of better understanding or controlling fluid flow. The educational component will leverage concepts from the study of topological structures in knotted physical fields to incorporate modern theoretical and experimental approaches within "classical physics" courses; communicate the joy and importance of science to the public; and, train high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in research especially persons who are underrepresented in science.Technical abstractThis Faculty Early Career Award funds a project that will probe the physics of knotted vortex loops in a fluid, for the first time in experiment. Building on our recent demonstration that it is possible to generate knotted vortex loops -- akin to smoke rings tied into knots -- we aim to establish the physics of topological flows in experiment, from the dynamics and rules of topology changing events to probing helicity as a conserved quantity in complex vertical flows. The point of view of a "topological vorticity designer" taken in this research constitutes a new approach to the experimental study of fluid mechanics and provides a rare opportunity to probe the dynamics of topological fields in a real physical system whose structure can be directly imaged. The general interplay between knots and fields has already had a profound impact on our understanding of modern topology and promises to provide additional insights - including new conservation laws - on physical processes in a broad range of systems including quantum fields, classical and superfluid turbulence, and excitations in condensed matter. The educational component will combine contemporary concepts from the study of topological structures in knotted physical fields with the visually striking realization of these concepts in experiment to modernize the experimental and instructional curriculum at the University of Chicago and beyond.