Synthetic dissipation and cascade fluxes in a turbulent quantum gas

Abstract

Scale-invariant fluxes are the defining property of turbulent cascades, but their direct measurement is a challenging experimental problem. Here we perform such a measurement for a direct energy cascade in a turbulent quantum gas. Using a time-periodic force, we inject energy at a large length scale and generate a cascade in a uniformly trapped three-dimensional Bose gas. The adjustable trap depth provides a high-momentum cutoff kD, which realizes a synthetic dissipation scale. This gives us direct access to the particle flux across a momentum shell of radius kD, and the tunability of kD allows for a clear demonstration of the zeroth law of turbulence. Moreover, our time-resolved measurements give unique access to the pre–steady-state dynamics, when the cascade front propagates in momentum space.