CAREER: Topological Vortex Dynamics

复杂的流体流动无处不在，从飞机或汽车周围的空气流动，到风暴的湍流，到太阳中带电粒子的复杂流动，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未完成。理论表明，理解拓扑涡动力学或流动的“结”可以提供对复杂流动的深刻的新理解。基于首席研究员最近在生成打结涡流环方面的成功-类似于绑成结的烟圈-并利用3D打印，高速成像和高性能计算的进步，这个职业发展奖将首次通过实验研究流体中的涡流和打结。如果该项目成功，其结果将为更好地理解或控制流体流动提供基础。教育部分将利用从打结物理场拓扑结构研究中获得的概念，将现代理论和实验方法纳入“经典物理学”课程;向公众宣传科学的乐趣和重要性;高中生、本科生和研究生的研究，特别是那些在科学中代表性不足的人。技术摘要这个教师早期职业奖资助一个项目这将首次在实验中探索流体中打结涡环的物理学。基于我们最近的演示，它是可能产生打结的涡环-类似于烟圈绑成结-我们的目标是建立物理拓扑流在实验中，从拓扑变化事件的动力学和规则，以探测螺旋度作为一个保守的量在复杂的垂直流。本研究所采用的“拓扑涡度设计者”的观点构成了流体力学实验研究的一种新途径，为探索结构可直接成像的真实的物理系统中拓扑场的动力学提供了难得的机会。结和场之间的一般相互作用已经对我们理解现代拓扑学产生了深远的影响，并有望提供更多的见解-包括新的守恒定律-在广泛的系统中的物理过程，包括量子场，经典和超流湍流，以及凝聚态物质的激发。教育部分将结合联合收割机当代概念，从研究的拓扑结构在打结的物理领域与视觉上惊人的实现这些概念的实验，现代化的实验和教学课程在芝加哥大学和超越。

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.