Universal and nonuniversal aspects of vortex reconnections in superfluids

Insight into vortex reconnections in superfluids is presented, making use of analytical results and numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii model. Universal aspects of the reconnection process are investigated by considering different initial vortex configurations and making use of a recently developed tracking algorithm to reconstruct the vortex filaments. We show that during a reconnection event the vortex lines approach and separate always according to the time scaling δ∼t1/2 with prefactors that depend on the vortex configuration. We also investigate the behavior of curvature and torsion close to the reconnection point, demonstrating analytically that the curvature can exhibit a self-similar behavior that might be broken by the development of shocklike structures in the torsion.