Three-observable measurement of the critical velocity in a paraxial superfluid of light flowing past a mobile impurity
Abstract
We report the measurement of the critical velocity of a paraxial superfluid of light flowing past a mobile impurity, realized using a dual-wavelength optical scheme in a warm vapor of 87Rb. The superflow is two-dimensional by nature, while the impurity features a highly repulsive potential, a large tunable radius, and a finite mass. The critical velocity is evaluated by simultaneously monitoring three complementary observables: the number of vortices nucleated in the wake of the impurity, the hydrodynamic force exerted on it, and its displacement velocity relative to the flow. These independent methods yield consistent values for the critical velocity, which remain systematically below the Landau criterion and decrease with the impurity radius, in qualitative agreement with theoretical expectations. Our results demonstrate the reliability of these combined diagnostics, establishing paraxial superfluids of light as a versatile platform for exploring the impurity problem in quantum hydrodynamics.
Related
- Critical velocity and dissipation mechanism in finite superfluid 4He nanodroplets
- RACLET: The Ramp Above Critical Level Endurance Test to evaluate critical velocity in manual wheelchair propulsion
- Geometric Phase and Spinor Beam Dynamics of Paraxial Beams
- Dual-Symmetrized Construction of Electromagnetic Beams Beyond the Paraxial Approximation with an Explicit Separation of Scalar and Vectorial Corrections
- A New Perspective on Matrix Representation of Paraxial Geometric Optics using Two Kinds of Three-Matrix Decompositions of the 2× 2 Special-Linear-Group Matrices
BibTeX
@misc{aladjidi2026threeobservable,
title = {{Three-observable measurement of the critical velocity in a paraxial superfluid of light flowing past a mobile impurity}},
author = {T. Aladjidi and M. Baker-Rasooli and T. D. Ferreira and A. Bramati and M. Albert and Q. Glorieux and P. -É. Larré},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.03948},
eprint = {2609.03948},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03948},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Three-observable measurement of the critical velocity in a paraxial superfluid of light flowing past a mobile impurity
AU - T. Aladjidi
AU - M. Baker-Rasooli
AU - T. D. Ferreira
AU - A. Bramati
AU - M. Albert
AU - Q. Glorieux
AU - P. -É. Larré
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.03948
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03948
AB - We report the measurement of the critical velocity of a paraxial superfluid of light flowing past a mobile impurity, realized using a dual-wavelength optical scheme in a warm vapor of ^87Rb. The superflow is two-dimensional by nature, while the impurity features a highly repulsive potential, a large tunable radius, and a finite mass. The critical velocity is evaluated by simultaneously monitoring three complementary observables: the number of vortices nucleated in the wake of the impurity, the hydrodynamic force exerted on it, and its displacement velocity relative to the flow. These independent methods yield consistent values for the critical velocity, which remain systematically below the Landau criterion and decrease with the impurity radius, in qualitative agreement with theoretical expectations. Our results demonstrate the reliability of these combined diagnostics, establishing paraxial superfluids of light as a versatile platform for exploring the impurity problem in quantum hydrodynamics.
ER -