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，到风暴的湍流积聚，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远不够完整。理论表明，理解拓扑涡旋动力学或流动的“结性”可以为复杂流动提供深刻的新理解。基于首席研究员最近在产生结涡环（类似于烟圈打结）方面的成功，以及利用3D打印、超高速成像和高性能计算的先进技术，该职业发展奖将首次通过实验研究流体中的涡流和结性。如果该项目成功，其结果将为建立更好地理解或控制流体流动的方法提供基础。教育部分将利用复杂物理领域拓扑结构研究中的概念，将现代理论和实验方法纳入“经典物理”课程；向公众传播科学的乐趣和重要性；对高中生、本科生和研究生进行研究培训，特别是在科学领域代表性不足的人。技术摘要：本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结涡环的物理特性。基于我们最近的演示，有可能产生打结的漩涡环——类似于烟圈打成结——我们的目标是在实验中建立拓扑流动的物理学，从拓扑变化事件的动力学和规则到探测螺旋度作为复杂垂直流动中的守恒量。本研究所采用的“拓扑涡度设计者”的观点，为流体力学实验研究开辟了一条新途径，为探索结构可直接成像的真实物理系统的拓扑场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对现代拓扑的理解产生了深远的影响，并有望为包括量子场，经典和超流体湍流以及凝聚态物质激发在内的广泛系统中的物理过程提供额外的见解-包括新的守恒定律。教育部分将结合来自复杂物理领域拓扑结构研究的当代概念，以及这些概念在实验中视觉上的惊人实现，以使芝加哥大学及其他大学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.