Manipulating Superfluid Vortices without Rotation

Although the most obvious way to create superfluid vortices in a particular direction is through physical rotation, rotating cryostats are complicated to build and maintain. We show that a straight wire, driven slightly off resonance, traces an elliptical path which generates vortices. These vortices can extend throughout a macroscopic container, and those created by a given wire excitation reliably have the same direction of circulation. Furthermore, we identify a new mechanism for changing the circulation trapped along a segment of the wire, which results in replacing the trapped portion with a vortex of the opposite circulation. These observations show how circulation can be produced and adjusted with no need for rotating equipment.