Stokes flow analogous to viscous electron current in graphene

Electron transport in two-dimensional conducting materials such as graphene, with dominant electron–electron interaction, exhibits unusual vortex flow that leads to a nonlocal current-field relation (negative resistance), distinct from the classical Ohm’s law. The transport behavior of these materials is best described by low Reynolds number hydrodynamics, where the constitutive pressure–speed relation is Stoke’s law. Here we report evidence of such vortices observed in a viscous flow of Newtonian fluid in a microfluidic device consisting of a rectangular cavity—analogous to the electronic system. We extend our experimental observations to elliptic cavities of different eccentricities, and validate them by numerically solving bi-harmonic equation obtained for the viscous flow with no-slip boundary conditions. We verify the existence of a predicted threshold at which vortices appear. Strikingly, we find that a two-dimensional theoretical model captures the essential features of three-dimensional Stokes flow in experiments.