Interacting helical traveling waves for the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (Q2693538)

Summary: We consider the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation \[ i\partial_t\psi+\Delta\psi+(1-|\psi|^2)\psi=0\text{ for }\psi:\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^3\to\mathbb{C} \] and construct traveling wave solutions to this equation. These are solutions of the form \(\psi(t,x)=u(x_1,x_2,x_3-Ct)\) with a velocity \(C\) of order \(\varepsilon|\log\varepsilon|\) for a small parameter \(\varepsilon>0\). We build two different types of solutions. For the first type, the functions \(u\) have a zero-set (vortex set) close to a union of \(n\) helices for \(n\geq 2\) and near these helices \(u\) has degree \(1\). For the second type, the functions \(u\) have a vortex filament of degree \(-1\) near the vertical axis \(e_3\) and \(n\geq 4\) vortex filaments of degree \(+1\) near helices whose axis is \(e_3\). In both cases the helices are at a distance of order \(1/(\varepsilon\sqrt{|\log\varepsilon|})\) from the axis and are solutions to the Klein-Majda-Damodaran system, supposed to describe the evolution of nearly parallel vortex filaments in ideal fluids. Analogous solutions have been constructed recently by the authors for the stationary Gross-Pitaevskii equation, namely the Ginzburg-Landau equation. To prove the existence of these solutions we use the Lyapunov-Schmidt method and a subtle separation between even and odd Fourier modes of the error of a suitable approximation.