Vortex Collisions: Crossing or Recombination?

We investigate the collision of two vortex lines moving with viscous dynamics and driven towards each other by an applied current. Using London theory in the approach phase we observe a nontrivial vortex conformation producing antiparallel segments; their attractive interaction triggers a violent collision. The collision region is analyzed using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation. While we find that vortices will always recombine through the exchange of segments, a crossing channel appears naturally through a double collision process.