Carlo Ewerz (Heidelberg University & EMMI/GSI) gives a webinar on “Vortex Motion Quantifies Strong Dissipation in a Holographic Superfluid”.

Holography or gauge/gravity duality provides a description of strongly coupled quantum systems in terms of weakly coupled gravitational theories in a higher-dimensional spacetime. It is a challenge, however, to quantitatively determine the physical parameters of the quantum systems corresponding to generic holographic theories. We have addressed this problem for the two-dimensional holographic superfluid. To this end, we have numerically simulated the motion of a vortex—anti-vortex dipole and performed a high-precision matching of the corresponding dynamics resulting from the dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Furthermore, we have compared the dynamics to the Hall-Vinen-Iordanskii equations for point vortices interacting with the superfluid. Our results suggest that holographic vortex dynamics can be applied to experimentally accessible superfluids like strongly coupled ultracold Bose gases or thin helium films with temperatures in the Kelvin range. This would make holographic far-from-equilibrium dynamics and turbulence amenable to experimental tests.