text:
# Friction force on a vortex due to the scattering of superfluid excitations in helium II

## I Introduction

The dynamics of quantized vortices in helium II constitutes one of the most remarkable topics in the study of superfluidity, but only at absolute zero such dynamics is well understood. At finite temperatures, on the other hand, the motion of vortices is subjected to frictional dissipation arising from the interaction with thermally excited quasiparticles and, while there exists an acceptable empirical knowledge of this phenomenon, the microscopic understanding of it leaves much to be desired, as we shall briefly survey in the following.

At zero temperature the force per unit length acting on a vortex line parallel to the $`z`$-axis, moving with a velocity $`𝐯`$, is the so-called Magnus force,

$$𝐅_M=\rho _s\kappa \widehat{𝐳}\times (𝐯𝐯_s).$$
(1)
Here $`\rho _s`$ is the superfluid mass density, $`\kappa =h/m`$ denotes one quantum of circulation ($`m`$ being the mass of a 4He atom and $`h`$ Planck’s constant), and $`𝐯_s`$ takes into account an eventual uniform superfluid velocity far from the line.

According to the two-fluid model, at nonvanishing temperatures the vortex line moves through a gas of excitations, phonons and rotons, and the friction owing to collisions with such quasiparticles gives rise to a drag force $`𝐅_d`$ that must be added to the Magnus force,

$$𝐅_d=D\widehat{𝐳}\times [\widehat{𝐳}\times (𝐯_n𝐯)]+D^{}\widehat{𝐳}\times (𝐯_n𝐯),$$
(2)
where $`𝐯_n`$ denotes the normal fluid velocity. It is important to notice that for temperatures above about 1 K, the dragging of normal fluid by the vortex becomes appreciable, and so the normal fluid velocity at the core of the vortex will differ from that measured far from the core. Consequently, the longitudinal (i.e., parallel to the vortex velocity) and transverse friction coefficients, $`D`$ and $`D^{}`$, will take different values depending on whether the local or bulk normal fluid velocity is considered in formula (2). In the first case, we refer to such coefficients as the microscopic ones, whereas in the second we refer to them as the phenomenological ones. Different theoretical models have been proposed to account for the transverse coefficient and a considerable controversy has arisen between them, since the experimental data so far obtained has not been able to provide enough hints to prove their validity. On the other hand, the state of the art is much more satisfactory for the longitudinal coefficient. In the lowest temperature range we begin by mentioning the pioneering study of Rayfield and Reif, who measured such coefficient for 0.28 K $`<T<`$ 0.7 K and deduced the value of the roton scattering cross section. The phonon scattering contribution, by contrast, could not be determined because of the scant information arising from the low temperature measurements, where phonons and 3He impurities strongly compete in the vortex drag force mechanism. Unfortunately, such a situation persists, since no conclusive results on this matter have been reported so far. For temperatures above 0.6 K, however, the phonon and 3He contributions should be negligible and the drag force is then ascribed to roton scattering. In such a case it was later found that the validity of the Rayfield-Reif results can be extended to higher temperatures up to 1.3 K approximately, with some evidence of a slow increase of the roton scattering cross section value with temperature.

All the above results for temperatures below 1.3 K are based on experiments which measure the drag on large vortex rings. On the other hand, for higher temperatures up to the lambda transition, the value of the friction coefficients is deduced from experiments involving attenuation of second sound in rotating containers that yield measurements of mutual friction on rectilinear vortices.

The most reliable theoretical study of the phonon drag force seems to be the 1965 Iordanskii’s calculation which confirmed the $`T^5`$ temperature dependence of the longitudinal coefficient found previously by Pitaevskii, except for a correction in the value of the proportionality constant. Actually the Iordanskii formula can in principle be applied to the whole dispersion range, i.e. to any superfluid excitation. His study was based on a model of a weakly interacting Bose gas leading to an expression for the longitudinal coefficient which depends on the quasiparticle-vortex scattering amplitude. While the phonon-vortex scattering amplitude was considered in detail by Iordanskii, in the roton case he made use of a quasiclassical approximation that yielded poor quantitative agreement with the longitudinal friction figures deduced from experiments. It is worth mentioning also, that the Iordanskii formula has recently been used to model the dissipative dynamics of vortices in trapped Bose-condensed gases.

Within the last decade, there has been several theoretical approaches to the calculation of the longitudinal force, ranging from semiempirical treatments based on numerical simulations of roton-vortex interactions, to more formal results studying the equivalence of adiabatic perturbation and kinetic approaches. Some other studies on vortex dynamics in two dimensions were based on the analogy between a quantized vortex in a superfluid and an electron in a uniform magnetic field. Such an analogy stems from the fact that the Lorentz and Magnus forces are both transverse forces whose magnitude is proportional to the velocity. Thus the cyclotron frequency of such vortex motion should be inversely proportional to a vortex effective mass whose value has also been a topic of debate. Moreover, only very recently a quantum theory starting from first principles, which supports the existence of such cyclotron motion, has been proposed showing that there are rotational states of a quantized vortex which form highly degenerate energy levels similar to the Landau levels in the integer quantum Hall effect.

The idea of a vortex dynamics ruled by a cyclotron motion is certainly a very simple and appealing one. This led us to begin the study of a quantal Brownian motion model by which the vortex is regarded as a quantum particle coupled to the heat reservoir composed by the quasiparticle (qp) excitations of the superfluid. Thus, it has been shown that the only linear coupling on the vortex degrees of freedom, position and momentum, that leads to a dynamics consistent with the drag force (2), corresponds to the vortex velocity. With respect to the qp dependence of the coupling, we have recently begun to study an interaction Hamiltonian based on the simplest scattering events, consisting in qp-vortex collisions which yield an outgoing qp, making the vortex to raise or lower one Landau level, the latter being equivalent to the above mentioned vortex velocity part of the coupling. In such a preliminary study we focused on temperatures below 0.4 K at which only phonons are thermally excited. In the present paper we shall concentrate our attention on the longitudinal friction coefficient, extending our previous approach to include the whole dispersion curve, up to temperatures at which the simple non-interacting qp gas picture is expected to break down ($`T<`$ 1.7 K).

In the next section, starting from a generic translationally invariant vortex-qp interaction potential, we first extract a suitable approximation to first order in the vortex velocity. Then, making use of previous results, the longitudinal friction coefficient is calculated, showing that it turns out to be equivalent to that arising from the Iordanskii formula, in the limit of a vanishing cyclotron frequency. A very simple functional form for the scattering amplitude, which is proposed for the whole qp dispersion range, leads in Section III to a thorough study of the friction coefficient, together with a comparison to the results derived from experiments and an analysis of the incidence of vortex-induced qp transitions of different kinds on the friction process. Finally, a summary and the main conclusions of this study are gathered in Section IV.

## II The model

To begin with, we note that for a vanishing superfluid velocity, $`𝐯_s=0`$, the Magnus force, Eq. (1), takes the form of a Lorentz force acting upon an electron in a uniform magnetic field. Then classically one has a cyclotron motion dynamics and, quantum mechanically, an energy spectrum of equally spaced Landau levels, both pictures ruled by a cyclotron frequency:

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=\rho _s\kappa \frac{L}{M},$$
(3)
where $`L`$ and $`M`$ respectively denote the vortex length and effective mass. Therefore, the Hamiltonian from which the Magnus force derives can be written as,

$$H_M=\frac{1}{2}M𝐯^2=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }\left(a^{}a+\frac{1}{2}\right),$$
(4)
where

$$𝐯=𝐩/M+\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{2}\widehat{𝐳}\times 𝐫$$
(5)
gives the vortex velocity operator in terms of position $`𝐫`$ and momentum $`𝐩`$ operators, and

$`v_x`$ $`=`$ $`i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }}{2M}}}(a^{}a)`$ (7)
$`v_y`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }}{2M}}}(a^{}+a)`$ (8)
gives the velocity components in terms of creation ($`a^{}`$) and annihilation ($`a`$) operators of right circular quanta. Note that a possible temperature dependence of the cyclotron frequency, arising from the factor $`\rho _s`$ in Eq. (3), can be avoided by working at low enough temperatures. For instance, the superfluid density $`\rho _s`$ changes less than 10 % approximately for temperatures below 1.5 K.

The Hamiltonian of the whole system (vortex plus qp gas) is formed by a vortex term Eq. (4), plus a non-interacting qp term, plus an interaction potential term which should take into account the vortex-qp scattering processes. The latter may be modeled through the following translationally invariant form:

$$\underset{𝐤,𝐪}{}\delta _{k_zq_z}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}\mathrm{exp}[i𝐫(𝐤𝐪)]a_𝐤^{}a_𝐪,$$
(9)
where $`a_𝐤^{}`$ ($`a_𝐤`$) denotes the creation (annihilation) operator of a qp of momentum $`\mathrm{}𝐤`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ denotes a coupling parameter to be determined, and the Kronecker delta factor assumes that there is no momentum transfer along the vortex line. The form (9), however, is difficult to deal with due to the nonlinear dependence on the vortex coordinate. Such a drawback can be overcome by making the replacement,

$`𝐫𝐫+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{M\mathrm{\Omega }}}𝐩\times \widehat{𝐳}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{\Omega }}}𝐯\times \widehat{𝐳}`$in the argument of the exponential in Eq. (9). This modified potential preserves translational invariance and, on the other hand, it makes possible a linear approximation for the usually small values of the vortex velocity, leading to an interaction potential of the form,

$$V=𝐁𝐯$$
(11)
with,

$$𝐁=\frac{2i}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\widehat{𝐳}\times \underset{𝐤,𝐪}{}\delta _{k_zq_z}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}(𝐤𝐪)a_𝐤^{}a_𝐪.$$
(12)
It is not difficult to have an estimation of the upper value of the vortex velocity that allows a linear approximation for $`\mathrm{exp}[i\frac{2}{\mathrm{\Omega }}𝐯\times \widehat{𝐳}(𝐤𝐪)]`$. Taking $`|𝐤𝐪|`$ of the order of the roton momentum, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ 0.01 ps-1 (see Refs. 14 and 16), the argument of the exponential turns out to be less than $`v`$/(25 cm/s). Note that such an approximation yields a zero-th order term, $`_{𝐤,𝐪}\delta _{k_zq_z}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}a_𝐤^{}a_𝐪`$ (cf. Eq. (9)), that should be added to the non-interacting qp Hamiltonian $`_𝐤\mathrm{}\omega _ka_𝐤^{}a_𝐤`$. However, it will be shown later that the coupling parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}`$ turns out to be by far much smaller than the qp energies.

Here it is worthwhile recalling that an interaction potential of the form (11) (i.e., proportional to the vortex velocity, Eq. (5)), was found to be the only linear combination of vortex position and momentum operators leading to a dynamics in agreement with a drag force of the form (2).

It is instructive to identify the scattering processes embodied in the interaction potential (12); in fact if we replace the velocity from Eqs. (II), we find that the interaction consists of terms of the form $`a^{}a_𝐤^{}a_𝐪`$ and $`aa_𝐤^{}a_𝐪`$, i.e. vortex-qp collisions that make the vortex to raise or lower one Landau level.

The quantum mechanical problem posed by the vortex Hamiltonian (4), plus a non-interacting qp Hamiltonian, plus the interaction (12), complemented by a thermal equilibrium assumption for the qp gas, can be solved for the expectation value of the vortex position operator. In fact, making use of the Markov approximation to second order in the coupling parameter, which is assumed to depend only on the modulus of the qp momentum ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐪}}=\mathrm{\Lambda }(k,q)`$), we obtain the following expression for the microscopic friction coefficient,

$$D_\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{2\pi }{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }L}\underset{𝐤,𝐪}{}\delta _{k_zq_z}|\mathrm{\Lambda }(q,k)|^2(𝐤𝐪)^2[n(\omega _k)n(\omega _q)]\delta (\omega _q\omega _k\mathrm{\Omega }),$$
(13)
where $`n(\omega )=[\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{}\omega /k_BT)1]^1`$ denotes the Bose occupation number for the qp excitations. The argument of the above Dirac delta shows the energy conservation rule corresponding to the scattering processes, e.g., a qp of energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _k`$ combines with a vortex energy quantum, $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }`$, to form a qp of energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _q=\mathrm{}\omega _k+\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Turning in Eq. (13) to the continuum limit according to $`_{𝐤,𝐪}\delta _{k_zq_z}\frac{LA^2}{(2\pi )^5}d^3𝐤d^3𝐪\delta (k_zq_z)`$, we have,

$$D_\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{A^2}{(2\pi )^4\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }}d^3𝐤d^3𝐪\delta (k_zq_z)|\mathrm{\Lambda }(q,k)|^2(𝐤𝐪)^2[n(\omega _k)n(\omega _q)]\delta (\omega _q\omega _k\mathrm{\Omega }),$$
(14)
where $`A`$ denotes the area of the system in the $`xy`$ plane.

We note that within this simple model we are unable to take into account the dragging of normal fluid by the vortex. The qp gas was in fact assumed to remain at rest, which should be a good approximation at least for temperatures up to about 1 K.

The expression (14), which is the main result of this paper, will be compared to the Iordanskii formula valid for small values of the vortex velocity relative to the qp gas,

$$D_I=\frac{n}{\omega _k}\frac{k_x}{\mathrm{}}\underset{\rho \mathrm{}}{lim}\left\{\frac{\delta (\omega _k\omega _q)}{\delta (k_zq_z)}(k_xq_x)|f_\rho (𝐪,𝐤)|^2\frac{d^3𝐪}{(2\pi )^3}\right\}\frac{d^3𝐤}{(2\pi )^3},$$
(15)
where without loss of generality we have assumed a vortex velocity along the $`x`$-axis. The scattering amplitude $`f_\rho (𝐪,𝐤)`$ corresponds to a vortex-qp interaction potential which is cut off to zero at a distance $`\rho `$ from the vortex center. Note that the Dirac delta in the denominator of the integrand only makes sense if $`f_\rho (𝐪,𝐤)`$ is proportional to $`\delta (k_zq_z)`$. At low temperatures only phonon-vortex scattering is relevant, and the limiting process and the integral over the wave vector $`𝐪`$ in Eq. (15) commute, so we have,

$$D_I=\frac{1}{(2\pi )^6\mathrm{}}d^3𝐤d^3𝐪\frac{n}{\omega _k}\delta (\omega _k\omega _q)k_x(k_xq_x)\delta (k_zq_z)|\stackrel{~}{f}(𝐪,𝐤)|^2.$$
(16)
The phonon-vortex scattering amplitude $`f(𝐪,𝐤)\stackrel{~}{f}(𝐪,𝐤)\delta (k_zq_z)`$ was extracted by Iordanskii, and its replacement in Eq. (16) yields,

$$D_I=\frac{76}{7}\frac{\zeta (5)(k_BT)^5}{\mathrm{}^2c_s^7m^2},$$
(17)
where $`c_s`$ denotes the sound velocity and $`\zeta (n)`$ the Riemann zeta function.

Given the difficulties in the calculation of a reliable expression for the scattering amplitude outside the phonon range, we shall assume in what follows that a simplified form like Eq. (16) stands for the whole dispersion range. To compare Eq. (16) with our formula (14), we first note that taking the limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$ in Eq. (14),

$$D_0=\underset{\mathrm{\Omega }0}{lim}D_\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{A^2}{(2\pi )^4\mathrm{}}d^3𝐤d^3𝐪\frac{n}{\omega _k}\delta (\omega _k\omega _q)(𝐤𝐪)^2\delta (k_zq_z)|\mathrm{\Lambda }(q,k)|^2,$$
(18)
an expression very similar to (16) is obtained. Actually, the factor $`\delta (\omega _k\omega _q)`$ in Eqs. (15) and (16) corresponds to the common assumption of elastic scattering of qp excitations by a vortex line. On the other hand, a vanishing cyclotron frequency is clearly inadmissible within our model, but if we assume a gap between Landau levels that scales down with the vortex size, such a limit may be regarded as a good approximation for a macroscopic system. In fact, Duan based on arguments of gauge-symmetry breaking, proposed for a vortex line in superfluid 4He an effective mass per unit length logarithmically divergent with the sample size, which for sizes of order $`1`$ cm yields $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ 0.15 ps-1 (Eq. (3)). Arovas and Freire exploiting the analogy to (2+1)-dimensional electrodynamics, showed that such a divergence is actually cut off at nonzero frequencies, with the wavelength of sound at that frequencies serving as a length scale for the cut-off. Finally, Tang in a quite different approach showed that in two dimensions the level spacing of a vortex increases with the energy and scales down logarithmically with the vortex size. According to his estimation of the gap between the lowest levels, we have $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ 0.011 ps-1 for a vortex in a 4He superfluid film of size $`1`$ cm. In the next section we shall compare $`D_0`$ to $`D_\mathrm{\Omega }`$, with $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ given by the above figures.

Given that the integrand of Eq. (18) is isotropic in the $`k_x`$-$`k_y`$ and $`q_x`$-$`q_y`$ planes, the factor $`(𝐤𝐪)^2`$ can be replaced by $`2k_x(k_xq_x)+2q_x(q_xk_x)`$ and, taking into account the invariance of the rest of the integrand under the replacement $`𝐤𝐪`$, both terms can in turn be replaced by $`4k_x(k_xq_x)`$. This means that if we identify

$$|\stackrel{~}{f}(𝐪,𝐤)|^2(4\pi A)^2|\mathrm{\Lambda }(q,k)|^2,$$
(19)
$`D_I`$ (expression (16)) can be shown to be equivalent to $`D_0`$.

Most of the integration in Eq. (14) can be analytically performed in spherical coordinates, leading to the following one-dimensional integral:

$$D_\mathrm{\Omega }=\left(\frac{A}{2\pi }\right)^2\frac{2}{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑kk[n(\omega _k)n(\omega _k+\mathrm{\Omega })]\underset{j}{}\frac{|\mathrm{\Lambda }(q_j,k)|^2}{|\omega _{q_j}^{}|}G(q_j,k)$$
(21)
$$G(q,k)=\{\begin{array}{c}\hfill kq(q^2+k^2/3)(kq)\\ \hfill q^2(k^2+q^2/3)(qk)\end{array}$$
(22)
where $`\omega _q^{}=\omega _q/q`$ denotes the group velocity arising from the identity

$$\delta (\omega _q\omega _k\mathrm{\Omega })=\underset{j}{}\frac{\delta (qq_j)}{|\omega _q^{}|},$$
(23)
and the summation runs over the values $`q_j`$ fulfilling $`\omega _{q_j}=\omega _k+\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Note, however, that the group velocity in the denominator of Eq. (21) vanishes at the roton and maxon points, and a simple inspection of the integrand of such an equation shows that the only healing to such divergences can stem from the coupling parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(q,k)`$. The simplest form that meets such a requirement is

$$|\mathrm{\Lambda }(q,k)|^2=\alpha |\omega _q^{}||\omega _k^{}|,$$
(24)
where the value of the scale parameter $`\alpha =(19/560)(2\pi \mathrm{}^2/mAc_s)^2`$ was set to reproduce the result (17) from Eq. (22) in the limit of a vanishing cyclotron frequency and the phonon dominated regime ($`T0.4`$ K). Actually, any power greater than unity of the group velocities in Eq. (24) could avoid the divergencies, but we have found that the first power yields the best fit to the experimental results on $`D`$. Note that taking into account in Eq. (24) a highest group velocity of the order of the sound velocity, the maximum value of $`|\mathrm{\Lambda }(q,k)|/\mathrm{}`$ turns out to be about $`\mathrm{}/mA10^{16}`$ ps-1 for $`A`$ cm2, a value which is by far much smaller than $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and any characteristic qp frequency (see Fig. 1). Such figures are consistent with the assumption from which Eq. (13) was derived, i.e., a Markov approximation to second order in the coupling parameter. Finally, replacing the form (24) in Eq. (22) and taking the limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$ we have,

$$D_0=\frac{19}{280}\frac{\mathrm{}^3}{m^2c_s^2}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑kk|\omega _k^{}|\frac{n}{\omega _k}\underset{j}{}G(q_j,k),$$
(25)
with $`G(q,k)`$ given in Eq. (22).

In the next section we shall analyze the above results.

## III results

Firstly it is expedient to recall our definition of the wave vectors $`q_j`$ appearing in Eq. (25): given the absolute value of a qp wave vector $`k`$ and its corresponding energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _k`$, the equation $`\omega _q=\omega _k`$ may have one, two , or three solutions in the variable $`q`$, which we call $`q_j`$ ($`j=`$1, 2, 3). In fact, (see Fig. 1) for $`\omega _k`$ below the roton minimum there is only one solution, $`q_1=k`$, and the same occurs for $`\omega _k`$ above the maxon value. For $`\omega _k`$ lying in between the roton and maxon values there are three solutions, while for $`\omega _k`$ equating any of such values there are two solutions.

The physical meaning of these solutions represents the different possibilities of qp-vortex interaction processes, namely, pure scattering events at which the qp momentum is simply deflected conserving its absolute value, or vortex-induced qp transitions changing the absolute value of momentum but conserving energy. For instance, a phonon of the highest part of the linear portion of the dispersion curve (e.g., point P in Fig. 1), may undergo three different kinds of interaction with the vortex: (i) a pure scattering event at which the absolute value of momentum is conserved; (ii) a phonon$``$roton $`R^{}`$ transition at which the outgoing qp corresponds to a roton at the left side of the roton minimum (Fig. 1); (iii) a phonon$``$ roton $`R^+`$ transition. Similarly, an $`R^\pm `$ roton could be simply scattered conserving the absolute value of its momentum, or could undergo a vortex-induced transition to a phonon or to an $`R^{}`$ roton.

The above picture corresponds to the limit of elastic scattering of qp excitations, where the value of the vortex energy quantum (cyclotron frequency) can be neglected with respect to any characteristic qp energy. In fact, as seen from the frequency scale in Fig. 1, values of order $`\mathrm{\Omega }0.010.1`$ ps-1 should be expected to be consistent with such a picture, and this assumption will be quantitatively tested later on.

Now it is instructive to plot the integrand of Eq. (25) for different temperatures. In Fig. 2 the panel (a) shows the low temperature behavior, i.e. only the phonon part of the dispersion range is appreciable; while for $`T=0.45`$ K (panel (b)) apart from the low temperature phonon peak, there is a couple of minor peaks around the roton minimum ($``$1.93 $`\mathrm{\AA }^1`$) associated to transitions involving $`R^\pm `$ rotons. There is also a pretty small fourth peak centered around 0.5 $`\mathrm{\AA }^1`$, which corresponds to phonon$``$roton transitions. For $`T=`$0.6 K (panel (c)) we observe that both phonon peaks turn out to be of the same order and much smaller than the roton peaks. Finally, for temperatures above 0.9 K only the phonon peak related to transitions is visible, remaining much smaller than the couple of roton peaks (panel (d)).

The above description shows that for temperatures up to 0.4 K, only the phonon part of the dispersion curve is significant in evaluating the expression (25), consequently if we set $`q_1=k`$ and $`\omega _k=c_sk`$ in Eq. (25), we obtain the result (17) as expected. On the other hand, for temperatures above 0.6 K, only the portion of the dispersion curve around the roton minimum makes a significant contribution to the integrand in Eq. (25), then one can safely make use of the usual approximations in roton calculations. In fact, the Landau parabolic approximation, $`\omega _k=\mathrm{\Delta }/\mathrm{}+\mathrm{}(kk_0)^2/2\mu `$, leads to two values for $`q_j`$, $`q_1=k`$ and $`q_2=2k_0k`$; in addition the Bose distribution in Eq. (25) can be well approximated by the Boltzmann distribution, and the range of integration can be extended in such an equation from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`+\mathrm{}`$ with negligible error. Under such approximations we have in the roton dominated regime,

$$D_0\frac{38}{105}\frac{\mathrm{}^3k_0^5}{m^2c_s^2}e^{\mathrm{\Delta }/k_BT}.$$
(26)
Rayfield and Reif found a similar expression for the temperature dependence of the longitudinal friction coefficient in agreement with their experimental data on large vortex rings obtained for temperatures up to 0.67 K. The validity of such an expression was later extended to temperatures nearly below 1.3 K. The only difference between our result (26) and the Rayfield-Reif formula stems from the coefficient of the exponential $`e^{\mathrm{\Delta }/k_BT}`$, which in their case is about 7 % lower than ours. Such a difference, however, turns out to be of the order of the experimental uncertainties. Another common formula in the literature is $`D=\rho _nv_G\sigma _{}`$, where $`v_G=|\omega _q/q|=\sqrt{2k_BT/\pi \mu }`$ is the average group velocity of thermal rotons, and $`\sigma _{}`$ is a longitudinal scattering length which can be approximated by the constant value 8.38 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ for temperatures below 1.3 K. Taking into account the roton approximation for $`\rho _n`$, such a formula practically yields the same friction coefficient values as those given by the Rayfield-Reif expression.

Fig. 3 corresponds to plots of the friction coefficient $`D`$ versus temperature in the range 0.4 K-1.3 K. The circle points were calculated as the sum of the Rayfield-Reif expression plus the Iordanskii expression, Eq. (17); note that above 0.6 K the former clearly dominates giving practically a straight line. The solid line corresponds to $`D_0`$ (Eq. (25)), while the values of $`D_\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with $`\mathrm{\Omega }=`$ 0.1 ps-1 (Eqs. (22) and (24)) are given by the dash-dotted line, and the corresponding values for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=`$ 0.01 ps-1 were not plotted since they lie in between the solid line and the center of the circle points in the whole temperature range. From Fig. 3 we may also realize that the expression (26) gives a good approximation to Eq. (25) for temperatures above 0.6 K, where the solid line practically becomes a straight line. But, it is clear that Eq. (26) does not take into account any phonon process or, in other words, we may conclude that the contribution of the phonon peaks in Fig. 2(c-d) must not have an appreciable weight in the integrand of Eq. (25). On the other hand, we have found that the weight of roton $`R^+R^{}`$ transitions is important. In fact, the dashed line in Fig. 3 corresponds to the values extracted from Eq. (25) considering only $`q_1=k`$, that is, neglecting both, phonon-roton and roton $`R^+R^{}`$ transitions. Notice that such a curve shows for $`T>0.6`$ K the same temperature dependence, $`e^{\mathrm{\Delta }/k_BT}`$, (i.e., the same slope in Fig. 3) as the expression (26), but the coefficient accompanying the exponential turns out to be substantially minor ($``$50%).

For temperatures above 1.3 K, the value of the friction coefficient is deduced from experiments involving attenuation of second sound. Fig. 4 shows that the microscopic and the phenomenological coefficients become increasingly differentiated above 1.3 K, with important uncertainties for higher temperatures, particularly in the case of the microscopic coefficient. Again we can see that the values for $`D_0`$ (solid line) turn out to be slightly greater than those for $`D_\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with $`\mathrm{\Omega }=`$ 0.01 ps-1 (dash-double-dotted line), and both keep in excellent agreement with the microscopic values up to temperatures about 1.5 K. The discrepancy observed for higher temperatures could be ascribed to a temperature breakdown of the non-interacting qp gas picture, since the higher experimental values of vortex friction are consistent with an emergence of interaction effects in the qp gas. In addition, possible effects of disregarded dragging of normal fluid by the vortex, and temperature dependence of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, could be affecting our results as well. The effect of neglecting vortex-induced qp transitions is again important, as seen from the dashed line which turns out to be about 50 % lower than $`D_0`$. Most of such transitions are of course between $`R^\pm `$ rotons since, if we neglect from $`D_0`$ in Eq. (25) only phonon-roton transitions, we obtain that the solid curve in Fig. 4 would be decreased less than 8 %.

## IV Summary and conclusions

We have studied the longitudinal friction force acting on a vortex line in superfluid 4He. Our treatment was based on the analogy between such a vortex dynamics and that of the quantal Brownian motion of a charged point particle in a uniform magnetic field. The friction arising from the scattering of superfluid qp excitations by the vortex was taken into account in the form of a translationally invariant interaction potential which, expanded to first order in the vortex velocity operator, gives rise to vortex transitions between nearest Landau levels. The corresponding friction coefficient was shown to be, in the limit of elastic scattering of qp excitations by the vortex, equivalent to that arising from the Iordanskii formula. To evaluate such a coefficient beyond the phonon dominated regime, we first noticed the singularities in the integrand defining the friction coefficient stemming from the zeros of the qp group velocity (roton and maxon points). Then, from the observation that such divergences could only be avoided given a suitable functional form for the vortex-qp scattering amplitude, a very simple one-parameter form was proposed for the whole qp dispersion range. The unknown scale parameter was adjusted to yield exactly the Iordanskii result for the friction coefficient in the phonon dominated regime, and thus such a coefficient was finally evaluated for higher temperatures taking into account the whole qp dispersion curve.

We have analyzed different possibilities for the calculation of the friction coefficient beyond the phonon range, namely,

(i) Our expression $`D_0`$, which assumes elastic scattering of qp excitations by the vortex ($`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$) and yields an excellent agreement with the experimental values up to temperatures about 1.5 K.

(ii) Our expression $`D_\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with cyclotron frequency values extracted from recent theories ($`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ ranging between 0.01 and 0.1 ps-1), the lower bound of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ yielding practically the same results as (i) and the upper bound underestimating the experimental data about 20 %.

We have also estimated, in the roton dominated regime, the relative importance of vortex-induced qp transitions on the friction process. We have found that the qp-vortex interaction processes with no change in qp momentum magnitude, are responsible for about 50 % of the value of the friction coefficient, and the remaining contribution arises from roton $`R^+R^{}`$ transitions ($``$42 %) and roton-phonon transitions ($``$8 %).

In conclusion, we have presented a rather simple theoretical model for the longitudinal friction on vortices in helium II, which yields excellent agreement with the values derived from experimental data and provides important insights about the microscopic mechanisms of mutual friction.


format: text

text:
# IONOSPHERIC MANIFESTATIONS OF GEOMAGNETIC PULSATIONS AT HIGH LATITUDES

## 1 Introduction

The correlation between variations of ionospheric parameters and variations of the Earth’s geomagnetic field has attracted the attention of researchers over decades . Comparison of fragments of simultaneously recorded geomagnetic pulsations and short-period variations in frequency Doppler shift $`f_d`$ of the ionosphere-reflected radio signal point to an unquestionable correlation between ionospheric parameter variations and the excitation regime of geomagnetic pulsations. The possibility of investigating Pi2 geomagnetic pulsations by recording $`f_d`$ variations is discussed in . In , it is confirmed that geomagnetic pulsations are hydromagnetic waves generated in the magnetosphere. The authors of  have established that hydromagnetic waves in the ionosphere can be studied by using the Doppler method. In , it is suggested that hydromagnetic waves give rise to a displacement of the ionospheric layer, and hence to the appearance in the ionosphere of small-scale wave disturbances with frequencies ranging from $`1.5`$ mHz to 100-200 mHz. It is also argued that there is a close relationship between short-period disturbances in the ionosphere and Pi2, Pip and PiC geomagnetic pulsations . The authors of  have revealed that wave disturbances in the high-latitude ionosphere are accompanied by the generation of Pi2 pulsations.

In spite of many years of theoretical and experimental research, it has not yet been possible to conclusively elucidate the mechanisms  accounting for the relationship between short-period variations in frequency Doppler shift of the ionosphere-reflected radio signal and geomagnetic pulsations. One of the reasons for this, as suggested by the authors of , has to do with the difficulty in obtaining statistically significant sets of experimental data.

Thus the relationship between $`f_d`$ variations and geomagnetic pulsations is of profound importance for the investigation of the influence of hydromagnetic waves on the structure and dynamics of the high-latitude ionosphere, on the one hand, and for the study of the geomagnetic pulsations themselves, on the other. Unfortunately, currently there is no clear understanding both of the morphology and of the physical origin of the relationships between ionospheric parameter variations and geomagnetic pulsations. The objective of this experimental paper is to establish the behavior patterns of the high-latitude ionosphere during periods of observation of different kinds of geomagnetic pulsations.

During 1995-1998, at the high-latitude station in Norilsk (geomagnetic latitude and longitude $`64.2^{}`$N, $`160.4^{}`$E, $`L=5.3`$), an experiment was organized on a simultaneous recording of $`f_d`$ variations and geomagnetic pulsations.

## 2 Experimental equipment and technique

The measurements of ionospheric parameters were made with the hardware-software facility for vertical-incidence ionospheric sounding that was developed on the basis of ionosonde R-017 and a personal computer . Some characteristics of the facility are: 2 kW transmitter pulse power, $`135\pm 15`$ ms pulse duration, and 50 Hz sounding pulse repetition rate.

The impulse signal in the vertical-incidence sounding mode was transmitted using the broadband delta-type antenna, with the main lobe width of the beam of 600. Half-wave dipole antennas operating at the mean frequency of the working range, 6 MHz, were used as receive antennas.

When operated at fixed frequency, the facility provided a Doppler spectrum of the ionosphere-reflected radio signal, as well as making it possible to calculate the weighted mean frequency Doppler shift $`f_d`$. The interval for spectral analysis was taken to be 20 s, which ensured a frequency resolution of $`0.05`$ Hz. A spectral analysis was carried out in the frequency band $`\pm 6`$ Hz. Observations as long as 15 min to several hours were carried out with the signal/noise ratio of at least 10. The experiment used working frequencies in the range 2-4 mHz; the signal reflected from the ionospheric $`E_s`$ and F2 layers was received. Geomagnetic pulsations were recorded on a 24-hour basis with the induction magnetometer in the frequency band 0.5-0.005 Hz, in the dynamic range 0.01-100 nT.

## 3 Experimental results

The observations were carried out in March, 1995, February, 1996, in March-April 1998. The $`f_d`$ variations were recorded during passage of the high latitude geomagnetic pulsations (GP): regular pulsations Pc5 and irregular pulsations Pi2. In total was analysed about 30 cases of simultaneous recording of $`f_d`$ variations and GP. From them six cases were of recording $`f_d`$ variations during passage of pulsations Pc5 and 25 cases were of recording of $`f_d`$ variations during passage Pi2.

Let’s consider in more detail two cases of simultaneous recording of $`f_d`$ variations and regular pulsations Pc5 which were observed in April 1, 1998 at 12:38-13:00 UT (18:38-19:00 LT) and in April 5, 1998 at 11:20-11:40 UT (17:20-17:40 LT). The geomagnetic conditions of April 1, 1998 were quiet, the coefficient of geomagnetic activity Kp was equal 1. The amplitude north-south component Pc5 was 33 nT, period of oscillations – 350 s (Fig. 1 a). Amplitude by east-west component Pc5 – 30 nT, principal periods of oscillations – 210 s and 480 s (Fig. 1 b). The sounding was conducted on frequency $`4.5`$ MHz at a relation signal/noise not less than 10. The signal reflected from a F2-layer of ionosphere was accepted. The critical frequency $`f_0F2`$ was 6-7 MHz, effective height $`h^{}`$ – 270-300 km. Amplitude $`f_d`$ was $`0.49`$ Hz, the periods – 210 s and 480 s. Fig. 1 d, e, f submit the diagrams of the spectrum time analysis (STAN) at coordinates time-period-spectral density (d) – north-south (N-S) component of GP; (e) – east-west (E-W) component of GP; (f) – variations $`f_d`$. The variations of $`f_d`$ respond to occurrence of geomagnetic pulsations and they are in an antiphase with oscillations of east-west component GP. Thus the variations $`f_d`$ react not only to pulsation of major amplitude (30 nT at 12:38 UT), but also ones respond to on feeble oscillations 7 nT at 12:10 UT. The diagrams STAN submitted in Fig. 1 d, e, f clearly show this fact. The response of $`f_d`$ variations on feeble oscillations GP is imposed on $`f_d`$ variation with period approximately 30 min. The $`f_d`$ variations with such periods is explain by passage of acoustic-gravity waves (AGW), which periods for heights of a F2-layer lies in the range between 10 and 40 min.

The regular pulsations Pc5 in April 5, 1998 also were observed under quiet geomagnetic requirements (Kp=1) (Fig. 2). The amplitude of north-south Pc5 component was $`16.5`$ nT, period of oscillations – 360 s (Fig. 2 a). Amplitude of east-west Pc5 component – $`9.5nT`$, period of oscillations – 360 s (Fig. 2 b). Variations of $`f_d`$ are submitted on Fig. 2 c. The sounding operation was performed at 5 MHz frequency at a relation signal/noise not less than 15-20. The radiosignal reflected from a F2 layer of an ionosphere was accepted. The critical frequency $`f_0F2`$ was 7-8 MHz, effective height $`h^{}`$ – 270 km. The amplitude of $`f_d`$ variations was $`0.56`$ Hz, a period of oscillations – 360 s. As well as in case of April 5 the long-period variations with a period of medium-scale TIDs ($`1.7`$ mHz) are superimposed on $`f_d`$ variations. It clearly that $`f_d`$ variations correlate with oscillations of GP. The variations $`f_d`$ are in a phase with oscillations of east-west GP component and are displaced in phase by 2-3 minutes for the north-south components of GP oscillations. The principal frequency of $`f_d`$ variations coincides with frequency of both north-south and east-west components of GP oscillations.

During observation of regular Pc5 pulsations in 5 of six cases the good correlation of time series both spectrums of pulsations and $`f_d`$ variations is observed; for one or for both components of the field of pulsations. In each individual case the responses of an ionosphere on GP oscillations have some different. Specifically the $`f_d`$ variations can be react on both components of GP or on one of them.

Irregularity pulsations Pi2 are observed in the explosive phase of geomagnetic substorm. Norilsk at this time was in auroral zone. The regular layer F2 was screened by a sporadic layer . The severity of the recording problem implied that a total absorption of radio waves is generally observed in the ionosphere, when the strongest, longest-lasting geomagnetic pulsations are excited. Nevertheless the most part of observational data (25 cases) were received for pulsations Pi2.

In six cases from these 25 the conformity between Pi2 and $`f_d`$ is marked. Fig. 3 present the case in February 15, 1996 at 19:25-19:44 UT. At generation Pi2 there is a abrupt amplification of $`f_d`$ variations. The maximum amplitude of north-south Pi2 component reach 21 nT, principal periods of oscillations – 50 s and 160 s (Fig. 3 a). Amplitude of east-west Pi2 component was 15 nT, the principal periods of oscillations – 65 s and 120 s (Fig. 3 b). Fig. 3 c presents $`f_d`$ variations. The sounding was conducted on frequency 3 MHz at a relation signal/noise about 5. The radiosignal reflected from $`E_{sr}`$-layer was accepted. The amplitude of $`f_d`$ variations at the moment of oscillation Pi2 sharply has increased to $`0.34`$ Hz. The principal periods of $`f_d`$ variations were 45 s, 65 s, 120 s, 180 s. Results for other five cases are simultaneous. At occurrence irregularity pulsations Pi2 the amplitude of $`f_d`$ variations was incremented and in the spectrum of variations $`f_d`$ there are spectral components with GP periods. The spectrum of $`f_d`$ variations is the complex, it include more spectral components, than spectrum GP. It is explained by that variation of parameters of the ionosphere cause not only geomagnetic pulsations, but also series of other factors.

In the majority of cases was revealed not any of conformity between $`f_d`$ variations and irregularity pulsations neither in a time series, nor in spectrums. One of such cases (March 27, 1998) is given in Fig. 4. In these cases on $`f_d`$ variations influence mechanisms more strong, than mechanisms associated with GP.

## 4 Discussion

It is universally accepted that geomagnetic pulsations, observed on the ground, represent the manifestations of magnetospheric hydrodynamic waves propagating downward through the ionosphere . It is common knowledge that the ionosphere modifies the characteristics of hydromagnetic waves . On the other hand, ionospheric parameters can also undergo changes under the effect of hydrodynamic waves. This is confirmed by simultaneous recordings of variations in frequency Doppler shift $`f_d`$ of the ionosphere-reflected radio signal and geomagnetic pulsations \[1-3, 6, 9, 10, 14\]. The time coincidence of $`f_d`$ variations and geomagnetic pulsations suggests that hydromagnetic waves in the range of pulsations have a pronounced effect on the ionosphere.

It should be noted that the mechanisms accounting for the correlation between geomagnetic pulsations and $`f_d`$ variations still remain unclear .

As has been pointed out above, the time series of Pc5 pulsations and $`f_d`$ variations have a high degree of correlation (Fig. 1, 2). The ratio of amplitudes of $`f_d`$ variations and geomagnetic pulsations was $`0.020.07`$ Hz/nT. This value is consistent with results (from $`0.01`$ Hz/nT to $`0.4`$ Hz/nT) obtained in . It is clearly seen from Fig. 2b and 2c that at the time of observation of Pc5 pulsations the spectral component of the $`f_d`$ variations, corresponding to the frequency of Pc5, increases abruptly. The agreement between the time series and spectra of the simultaneously recorded geomagnetic pulsations and $`f_d`$ variations suggests that hydromagnetic waves of the Pc5 range, when interacting with the ionospheric F2 layer, make the main contribution to short-period $`f_d`$ variations.

As in , in most cases we detected only a slight correlation between $`f_d`$ variations and geomagnetic pulsations. The simultaneous recording of Pi2 geomagnetic pulsations and $`f_d`$ variations shows: a) at all events an almost total absence of correlation between the time series; and b) in series of cases coincidence of the principal maxima on the plots of spectral density of these phenomena at the time of Pi2 observation. A similar situation was observed in the case of a simultaneous recording of the luminosity of polar auroras and Pi2 pulsations . The absence of correlation between time series of irregular Pi2 pulsations and $`f_d`$ variations of the $`E_s`$ layer-reflected radio signal may be attributed to a variety of factors. In the first place, in high latitudes there may exist several sources of Pi2 spaced by several degrees in latitude . Secondly, at the sporadic E layer heights the density of the neutral component is significantly higher, and its influence on ionospheric plasma drifts is stronger when compared with the F2 layer. And thirdly, magnetic variations may be the response of ionospheric currents within the field of view of magnetometers (within the range of several hundred kilometres), whereas the ionosonde measures less distant disturbances in the ionosphere over the observation site, within the range of 50-100 km . Furthermore, there may be interference of the reflected radio waves from ionospheric irregularities, as pointed out in .

Nevertheless, it’s suggest that there is unquestionable correlation between $`f_d`$ variations of the sporadic E layer-reflected radio signal and irregular Pi2 pulsations.

## 5 Conclusions

An experiment has been conducted on a simultaneous recording of the variations in frequency Doppler shift $`f_d`$ of the ionosphere-reflected radio signal and geomagnetic pulsations measured on the ground.

Experimental results have revealed the following basic features:

a) the presence of a good correlation between regular Pc5 geomagnetic pulsations and variations in frequency Doppler shift $`f_d`$ of the ionospheric F2 layer-reflected radio signal;

b) the abrupt enhancement of the spectral component of variations $`f_d`$ at the frequency coinciding with that pulsations, at the time of Pc5 observation;

c) absence of a correlation between irregular Pi2 geomagnetic pulsations and variations in frequency Doppler shift of the radio signal reflected from the sporadic E layer of the auroral ionosphere;

d) in the series of cases at the time of Pi2 observation - an enhancement of the short-period components of the spectrum of $`f_d`$ variations, and the coincidence of the principal maxima on the plots of spectral density of $`f_d`$ variations and Pi2.

On the basis of these main results, the following conclusions have been drawn:

Hydromagnetic waves in the range of regular Pc5 pulsations, when interacting with the ionospheric F2 layer, make the main contribution to short-period $`f_d`$ variations. The possible mechanism of $`f_d`$ variations are oscillations of electron density, associated with distribution of a hydromagnetic wave in an ionosphere.

There exists an unquestionable interrelation between $`f_d`$ variations of the sporadic E layer-reflected radio signal and irregular Pi2 pulsations, but for some reasons it is noted poorly.

## 6 Acknowledgements

We are indebted to V.V.Klimenko and to all staff members of the Norilsk station for assistance in conducting the experiment. Special thanks are due to E.L. Afraimovich and G.A. Zherebtsov for useful discussions of the results.