Neutron star glitches are thought to involve sudden transfers of angular momentum from a superfluid interior to the crust. The turbulence that follows — vortices detaching, cascading, and dissipating — determines the glitch recovery. Whether the turbulence follows classical Kolmogorov scaling or quantum Vinen scaling depends on how vortices interact.
This paper simulates spin-down in self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensates, comparing standard bosonic systems with axionic condensates that have higher-order interactions. The axion nonlinearity produces more uniform density profiles and smaller condensate sizes, which lets vortices enter earlier. When the rotation suddenly decreases, pinned vortices detach and a turbulent cascade begins.
For comparable sizes, both systems show a brief Kolmogorov cascade (k^{-5/3}) followed by Vinen turbulence (k^{-1}). But with increasing interaction strength, the axionic system increasingly deviates from Kolmogorov scaling because of enhanced vortex retention — the higher-order interactions make vortices stickier. The growth of incompressible kinetic energy is driven by quantum pressure during vortex detachment, not by compressible flows. The type of nonlinearity determines the turbulence type: the same spin-down event produces different turbulent cascades depending on whether the condensate is bosonic or axionic.