Hunt for an unidentified electron object

New research sheds light on the nature of 'unidentified electron objects' - a mysterious class of objects that exists in superfluid helium at low temperature. The mystery of an unidentified electron object is just a teaser problem; we are ready for other challenges. Natalia Berloff Researchers have developed a new mathematical framework capable of describing motions in  superfluids - low temperature fluids that exhibit classical as well as quantum behavior. The framework was used to lift the veil of mystery surrounding strange objects in superfluid helium (detected ten years ago at Brown University). The quantum nature of superfluids manifests itself in the form of quantized vortices, tiny twisters, with the core sizes of the order of an Angstrom (0.1nm - approximately the diameter of an atom) that move through fluid severing and coalescing, forming bundles and tangles. To make these processes even more intricate and distinct from motions in usual classical fluids, these tiny twisters live on the background consisting of a mixture of viscous and inviscid fluid components that constitute superfluid. The mathematical modelling of such complex systems that involve a range of scales is a notoriously difficult problem.