Science News - March 12, 2011

Drake thought the finding might help explain why reconnections happen faster among magnetic field lines in the sun than classical magnetic theory would predict. Drake and colleagues also argued, in a paper published last year in the Astrophysical Journal, that similar reconnections may be happening among magnetic field lines at the edge of the solar system.

Real quantum turbulence, not just an analog, may even have occurred at more distant reaches. Kerson Huang, a physicist at MIT, thinks that quantum turbulence could explain a lot about the cosmos. Astronomers studying the heavens have found that there are gaps of relatively empty space billions of light-years across, where few galaxies are found. But space in general looks uniform, so why these gaps exist has remained a mystery.

Huang thinks if the early universe were like a superfluid punctured by quantum vortices, these vortices could have created the gaps. If so, this phenomenon might be seen in a particle accelerator designed to imitate the vacuum of the early universe, such as the Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva. Colliding beams of protons at the LHC generate exotic particles and release a lot of energy.

“It’s a fireball that could burn a hole in the vacuum, so to speak,” Huang says. Such holes would have been pinpricks in the early universe, but would have bloated as the universe expanded, creating the cosmic voids, wrote Huang and colleagues in a paper posted online in November at arXiv.org.

However, Huang says, people haven’t thought deeply enough about how to detect hints of vortices in collider data: “We might create it, but we might not recognize it.” He is now doing calculations to figure out whether vortices would grow to a size that matches the size of voids found in the cosmos.

“His ideas are interesting because they connect quantum theory to vortices to the early universe,” Lathrop says. If Huang turns out to be right, his work could help rule out some theories for the birth of the universe.

All shook up though you won’t spot quantum turbulence in your coffee mug or kitchen sink, you probably experience some form of classical turbulence every day. the phenomenon occurs when fluid attempts to flow past an object or another fluid, bouncing and twisting to create chaotic patterns.

Buckle up rough air in the form of strong updrafts in storms, downdrafts on the leeward side of a mountain and shifting jet stream boundaries can shake unbuck- led airline passengers from their seats. though bumps caused by air moving against air can injure a person onboard, they rarely damage planes.

Flowing through when doctors bring a stethoscope to your heart, they are listen- ing for the lubb-dupp that comes with a healthy beat. obstructions resulting from valve malfunctions or clogged arteries can cause a whooshing or blowing sound because they interrupt blood’s streamlined flow to create an audible, turbulent one.

Shine down as the sun’s core burns,
energy is radiated outward. this results
in a constant, turbulent overturning of
hot and cold gases in the sun’s outer layer,
called the convection zone. computer
simulations are helping scientists under-
stand how small-scale turbulence can
result in the large-scale order seen in the
convection zone.

What a drag the flow of air around a mov- ing car takes on a turbulent quality and increases drag. though the effect may not matter much at city speeds, formula 1 race car designers have put a lot of effort into reducing turbulence in air passing over their vehicles. at the same time, organizers want turbulence behind the car reduced because it makes overtaking another car more difficult.

Seaside surf as a wave approaches the beach, the gradual slope of the ocean bot- tom causes the wave to steepen until its crest becomes unstable, resulting in white water. similar disruptions can occur mid- ocean anytime water’s flow is interrupted by an obstruction, such as a reef.

For now, his cosmic void idea is specu-
lative. But sometimes speculation turns
out to be true. That was the case with
Feynman’s predictions about quan-
tum vortices. After suggesting that they
would not only pop up, but also recon-
nect to dissipate energy, Feynman wrote
in his 1955 paper: “Having travelled so
far making one unverified conjecture
upon another we may have strayed very
far from the truth.” Surely you were jok-
ing, Mr. Feynman —your predictions
were spot-on. s