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In a fluid whose topology is such that the motions are constrained to be described by the Navier-Stokes equations, it can be shown that the irreversible processes will lead to topological defects where the "lines of vorticity" are not integrable. That is the vortex lines of limit points will have the shape of a spiral helix. The neighborhoods will be domains where curl V . curl curl V <>0.
After the announcement in May of 1997 of these ideas at the SIMFLO conference in
Copenhagen, P. A. Kuibin and V.L. Okulov from Novosibirsk presented open flow
experiments that produced such topological defects, and corroborated the
theoretical prediction.
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