Precessing Vortex Motion and Instability in a Rotating Column of Superfluid 3He-B

In a rotating circular cylinder of superfluid 3He-B, an evolving vortex expands longitudinally such that its end point describes a helically spiralling trajectory along the cylinder wall. The spiral motion is found to give rise to a periodically oscillating NMR signal, which is brought about by the modulation in the superfluid counterflow and its influence on the “flare-out” order parameter texture. The new NMR signal becomes observable within a narrow temperature interval close to the onset temperature of turbulence, when new vortices are continuously generated by the single-vortex instability at the cylindrical wall at a slow rate, ∼1 vortex/s. We use numerical vortex filament calculations to examine the precessing motion of the evolving vortices, while they expand towards their stable state as rectilinear line vortices.