Stability of solitons on vortex filaments

A vortex filament is a filament on Which fluid vorticity is concentrated. This concept is particularly important in superfluidity and turbulence. This Letter focuses on the vortex filament equation (VFE), which is a model for the motion of a vortex filament in an incompressible and inviscid fluid. The VFE soliton solutions are considered and their spectral stability is proven by developing a straightforward method to solve the corresponding eigenvalue problem. A similar analysis is performed on the planar vortex filament equation. We discuss the applicability of the methods introduced in this Letter to other physically relevant curve equations and other types of solutions. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.