Exact vortex nucleation and cooperative vortex tunneling in dilute Bose-Einstein condensates

With the imminent advent of mesoscopic rotating Bose-Einstein condensates in the lowest Landau level regime, we explore lowest Landau level vortex nucleation. An exact many-body analysis is presented in a weakly elliptical trap for up to 400 particles. Striking non-mean-field features are exposed at filling factors >1. For example, near the critical rotation frequency pairs of energy levels approach each other with exponential accuracy. A physical interpretation is provided by requantizing a mean-field theory, where 1/N plays the role of Planck's constant, revealing two vortices cooperatively tunneling between classically degenerate energy minima. The tunnel splitting variation is described in terms of frequency, particle number, and ellipticity.     

磁偶极相互作用下玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中出现的奇特涡旋晶格结构

文章简要地介绍了玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中出现的涡旋和铬原子玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的实验研究进展,还介绍了文章作者的一项最新的理论工作.研究指出,由于铬原子磁偶极相互作用的影响,凝聚体中将出现奇特的各向异性的涡旋晶格结构     

磁偶极相互作用下玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中出现的奇特涡旋晶格结构

文章简要地介绍了玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中出现的涡旋和铬原子玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的实验研究进展，还介绍了文章作者的一项最新的理论工作。研究指出，由于铬原子磁偶极相互作用的影响，凝聚体中将出现奇特的各向异性的涡旋晶格结构。     

Transverse instability of straight vortex lines in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

The physics of vortex lines in dipolar condensates is studied. Because of the nonlocality of the dipolar interaction, the 3D character of the vortex plays a more important role in dipolar gases than in typical short-range interacting ones. In particular, the dipolar interaction significantly affects the stability of the transverse modes of the vortex line. Remarkably, in the presence of a periodic potential along the vortexline, the spectrum of transverse modes shows a rotonlike minimum, which eventually destabilizes the straight vortex when the BEC as a whole is still stable, opening the possibility for new scenarios for vortex-line configurations in dipolar gases.     

Spin-orbit-coupled dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We propose an experimental scheme to create spin-orbit coupling in spin-3 Cr atoms using Raman processes. By employing the linear Zeeman effect and optical Stark shift, two spin states within the ground electronic manifold are selected, which results in a pseudospin-1/2 model. We further study the ground state structures of a spin-orbit-coupled Cr condensate. We show that, in addition to the stripe structures induced by the spin-orbit coupling, the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction gives rise to the vortex phase, in which a spontaneous spin vortex is formed.     

Anisotropic solitons in dipolar bose-einstein condensates

Starting with a Gaussian variational ansatz, we predict anisotropic bright solitons in quasi-2D Bose-Einstein condensates consisting of atoms with dipole moments polarized perpendicular to the confinement direction. Unlike isotropic solitons predicted for the moments aligned with the confinement axis [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 200404 (2005)10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.200404], no sign reversal of the dipole-dipole interaction is necessary to support the solitons. Direct 3D simulations confirm their stability.     

Einstein-de Haas effect in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

The general properties of the order parameter for a dipolar spinor Bose-Einstein condensate are discussed based on symmetries of interactions. An initially spin-polarized dipolar condensate is shown to dynamically generate a nonsingular vortex via spin-orbit interactions--a phenomenon reminiscent of the Einstein-de Haas effect in ferromagnets.     

Spontaneous spin textures in dipolar spinor condensates

We have mapped out a detailed phase diagram that shows the ground state structure of a spin-1 condensate with magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. We show that the interplay between the dipolar and the spin-exchange interactions induces a rich variety of quantum phases that exhibit spontaneous magnetic ordering in the form of intricate spin textures.     

Anisotropic collapse in three-dimensional dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the (3+1)-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii / Nonlinear Schrödinger equation describing a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. Bound states are computed using accurate numerical techniques. When the dipolar strength is negative, the total number of atoms vs. frequency relationship for these bound states is multi-valued and possesses a cusp point, which corresponds to a “candlestick” ground state. Direct simulations of this ground state exhibit strongly-anisotropic collapse of its nucleus, with different contraction rates along the dipole axis and perpendicular to it. We propose an anisotropic self-similar theory to explain this dynamics. The physical implications are discussed.     

Two-dimensional bright solitons in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We analyze the physics of bright solitons in 2D dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates. These solitons, which are not possible in short-range interacting gases, constitute the first realistic proposal of fully mobile stable 2D solitons in ultracold gases. In particular, we discuss the necessary conditions for the existence of stable 2D bright solitary waves by means of a 3D analysis of the lowest-lying excitations. We show that the anisotropy of the dipolar potential is crucial, since sufficiently large dipolar interactions can destabilize the 2D soliton. Additionally, we study the scattering of solitary waves, which, contrary to the contact-interacting case, is inelastic and could lead to fusion of the waves. Finally, the experimental possibilities for observability are discussed.     

Scattering length instability in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We predict a new kind of instability in a Bose-Einstein condensate composed of dipolar particles. Namely, a comparatively weak dipole moment can produce a large, negative two-body scattering length that can collapse the Bose-Einstein condensate. To verify this effect, we validate mean-field solutions to this problem using exact, diffusion Monte Carlo methods. We show that the diffusion Monte Carlo energies are reproduced accurately within a mean-field framework if the variation of the s-wave scattering length with the dipole strength is accounted for properly.     

Quantum phases of dipolar spinor condensates

We study the zero-temperature ground state structure of a spin-1 condensate with magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. We show that the dipolar interactions break the rotational symmetry of the Hamiltonian and induce new quantum phases. Different phases can be reached by tuning the effective strength of the dipolar interactions via modifying the trapping geometry. The experimental feasibility of detecting these phases is investigated. The spin-mixing dynamics is also studied.     

Effective field theory for spinor dipolar Bose Einstein condensates

We show that the effective theory of long wavelength low energy behavior of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate(BEC) with large dipole moments (treated as a classical spin) can be modeled using an extended non-linear sigma model (NLSM) like energy functional with an additional non-local term that represents long ranged anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction. Minimizing this effective energy functional we calculate the density and spin-profile of the dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate in the mean-field regime for various trapping geometries. The resulting configurations show strong intertwining between the spin and mass density of the condensate, transfer between spin and orbital angular momentum in the form of Einstein-de Hass effect, and novel topological properties. We have also described the theoretical framework in which the collective excitations around these mean field solutions can be studied and discuss some examples qualitatively.     

Roton-roton crossover in strongly correlated dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the pair correlations and excitations of a dipolar Bose gas layer. The anisotropy of the dipole-dipole interaction allows us to tune the strength of pair correlations from strong to weak perpendicular and weak to strong parallel to the layer by increasing the perpendicular trap frequency. This change is accompanied by a roton-roton crossover in the spectrum of collective excitations, from a roton caused by the head-to-tail attraction of dipoles to a roton caused by the side-by-side repulsion, while there is no roton excitation for intermediate trap frequencies. We discuss the nature of these two kinds of rotons and the relation to instabilities of dipolar Bose gases. In both regimes of trap frequencies where rotons occur, we observe strong damping of collective excitations by decay into two rotons.     

Three-dimensional solitons and vortices in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

Three-dimensional solitary and vortex structures in Bose-Einstein condensates are studied in the framework of Gross-Pitaevskii model including the simultaneous action of local cubic-quintic nonlinearity and nonlocal dipole-dipole interactions. Nonlocal interactions are shown to change significantly the formation threshold and the numbers of atoms confined into the coherent structures. An appearance of robust high-order (m=2) three-dimensional vortices is revealed.     

Spontaneous circulation in ground-state spinor dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We report on a study of the spin-1 ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate with magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. By solving the nonlocal Gross-Pitaevskii equations for this system, we find three ground-state phases. Moreover, we show that a substantial orbital angular momentum accompanied by chiral symmetry breaking emerges spontaneously in a certain parameter regime. We predict that all these phases can be observed in the spin-1 87Rb condensate by changing the number of atoms or the trap frequency.     

Critical temperature of weakly interacting dipolar condensates

We calculate perturbatively the effect of a dipolar interaction upon the Bose-Einstein condensation temperature. This dipolar shift depends on the angle between the symmetry axes of the trap and the aligned atomic dipole moments, and is extremal for parallel or orthogonal orientations, respectively. The difference of both critical temperatures exhibits most clearly the dipole-dipole interaction and can be enhanced by increasing both the number of atoms and the anisotropy of the trap. Applying our results to chromium atoms, which have a large magnetic dipole moment, shows that this dipolar shift of the critical temperature could be measured in the ongoing Stuttgart experiment.     

Kinetic helicity of vortex in Bose-Einstein condensates

Kinetic helicity of vortex in Bose-Einstein condensates is studied and classified by Hopf index, linking number in geometry. A mechanism of generation and annihilation of vortex line is given by method of phase singularity theory. The dynamic behavior of vortex at the critical points is discussed detailly, and three kinds of length approximation relations at the neighborhood of singularity point are given.     

Vortices in dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates in synthetic magnetic field

We study the formation of vortices in a dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate in a synthetic magnetic field by numerically solving the Gross–Pitaevskii equation. The formation process depends on the dipole strength, the rotating frequency, the potential geometry, and the orientation of the dipoles. We make an extensive comparison with vortices created by a rotating trap, especially focusing on the issues of the critical rotating frequency and the vortex number as a function of the rotating frequency. We observe that a higher rotating frequency is needed to generate a large number of vortices and the anisotropic interaction manifests itself as a perceptible difference in the vortex formation. Furthermore, a large dipole strength or aspect ratio also can increase the number of vortices effectively. In particular, we discuss the validity of the Feynman rule.     

Mermin-ho vortex in ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

The Mermin-Ho and Anderson-Toulouse coreless vortices are demonstrated to be thermodynamically stable in ferromagnetic F = 1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates under rotation. We have carried out extensive calculations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equations by assuming uniform density along the z axis and comparing the energies of other competing non-axis-symmetric or singular vortices. The phase diagram is thereby established in a plane of the rotation drive vs the total magnetization. Their stability is also checked by calculating collective modes based on the Bogoliubov equations.