The Vortex Surface in a Three-Body Quantum System

Abstract

Vortices are structures known in our daily lives and observed in a wide variety of systems, from cosmic to microscopic scales. Relatively recent studies showed that vortices could also appear in simple quantum systems. For instance, they were observed experimentally and theoretically as isolated zeros in the differential cross section in atomic ionization processes by the impact of charged particles. In this work, we show that the appearance of these quantum vortices as point structures was not due to any intrinsic property of them, but to the use of restrictive geometries in their visualization. In particular, we show that by studying the fully differential cross section for hydrogen ionization by positron impact, these vortex points are actually a manifestation of a more complex and hitherto unexplored structure, a 3D “vortex surface”.