Vortex formation in a slowly rotating Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic-plus-Gaussian laser trap

Motivated by the recent experiment at ENS [V. Bretin, S. Stock, Y. Seurin and, J. Dalibard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 050403 (2004)], we study a rotating (non-)interacting atomic Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic-plus-Gaussian laser trap potential. By adjusting the amplitude of the Gaussian laser potential, one can make quadratic-plus-quartic potential, purely quartic potential, and quartic-minus-quadratic potential. We show that an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic-plus-Gaussian laser trap breaks the rotational symmetry of the Hamiltonian when rotational frequency is greater than one-half of the lowest energy surface mode frequency. We also show that by increasing the amplitude of the Gaussian laser trap, a vortex appears in a slowly rotating Bose-Einstein condensate. Moreover, one can also create a vortex in a slowly rotating non-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate confined in harmonic-plus-Gaussian laser potential.Received: 24 June 2004, Published online: 24 August 2004PACS: 03.75.Lm Tunneling, Josephson effect, Bose-Einstein condensates in periodic potentials, solitons, vortices and topological excitations - 05.30.Jp Boson systems     

Bose--Einstein Condensates with Two- and Three-Body Interactions in an Anharmonic Trap at Finite Temperature

The transition temperature, the depletion of the condensate atoms and the collective excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensation （BEC） with two- and three-body interactions in an anharmonic trap at finite temperature are studied in detail. By using the Popov version of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov （HFB） approximation, an extended self-consistent model describing BEC with both two- and three-body interactions in a distorted harmonic potential at finite temperature is obtained and solved numerically. The results show that the transition temperature, the condensed atom number and the collective excitations are modified dramatically by the atomic three-body interactions and the distortion of the harmonic trap.     

Role of surface modes in vortex formation in BEC

We study the role of surface modes in the process of vortex formation in harmonically trapped BEC. It is shown that the vortex nucleation and penetration to the inner part of the cloud occur at velocities slightly exceeding the surface mode critical velocity. Surface modes induce ripples of the order parameter; these ripples are then transformed into vortex-antivortex pairs. After this, vortices move to the inner part of the cloud, whereas antivortices go in the opposite direction     

Evolution of the vortex state in the BCS-BEC crossover of a quasi two-dimensional superfluid Fermi gas

We use the path-integral formalism to investigate the vortex properties of a quasi-two dimensional(2D) Fermi superfluid system trapped in an optical lattice potential.Within the framework of mean-field theory,the cooper pair density,the atom number density,and the vortex core size are calculated from weakly interacting BCS regime to strongly coupled while weakly interacting BEC regime.Numerical results show that the atoms gradually penetrate into the vortex core as the system evolves from BEC to BCS regime.Meanwhile,the presence of the optical lattice allows us to analyze the vortex properties in the crossover from three-dimensional(3D) to 2D case.Furthermore,using a simple re-normalization procedure,we find that the two-body bound state exists only when the interaction is stronger than a critical one denoted by G_c which is obtained as a function of the lattice potential's parameter.Finally,we investigate the vortex core size and find that it grows with increasing interaction strength.In particular,by analyzing the behavior of the vortex core size in both BCS and BEC regimes,we find that the vortex core size behaves quite differently for positive and negative chemical potentials.     

Topological creation of a multiply charged quantized vortex in the Rb Bose-Einstein condensate

A quadruply-charged quantized vortex has been created successfully in the ⁸⁷Rb Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). The condensate was confined in a cloverleaf magnetic trap, and the vortex was formed by the reversal of the axial magnetic field. The vortex could be observed only in a holding time of about 1 ms, which was much shorter than that reported in the Na BEC, and the vortex position was also unstable in the BEC. To overcome these experimental difficulties, we took the following two measures and improved the vortex formation: (i) axial confinement with a FORT, which prevents the BEC from axial expansion after the field reversal, and (ii) compensation of gravity with a blue-detuned laser beam, which removes the gravitational sag.     

偶极玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体在类方势阱中的Bénard-von Kármán涡街

对偶极玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体（Bose-Einstein condensate,BEC）在类方势阱中的Bénard-von Kármán涡街现象进行了数值研究.结果表明,当障碍势在BEC中的运动速度与尺寸在适当范围内时,系统中会出现稳定的两列涡旋对阵列,即Bénard-von Kármán涡街.研究了偶极相互作用强弱、障碍势尺寸以及运动速度对尾流中产生的涡旋结构的影响,得到了相图结构.对障碍势所受拖拽力进行计算,分析了涡旋对产生的力学机理.     

Observation of reduced three-body recombination in a correlated 1D degenerate Bose gas

We investigate the correlation properties of a one-dimensional interacting Bose gas by loading a magnetically trapped 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) into a deep two-dimensional optical lattice. We measure the three-body recombination rate for both the BEC in the magnetic trap and the BEC loaded into the optical lattice. The recombination rate coefficient is a factor of 7 smaller in the lattice, which we interpret as a reduction in the local three-body correlation function in the 1D case. This is a signature of correlation intermediate between that of the uncorrelated, phase coherent, 1D, mean-field regime and the strongly correlated Tonks-Girardeau regime.     

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.     

Vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates: A review of the experimental results

Rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of alkali atoms offer a testing ground for theories of vortices in weakly interacting superfluids. In a rotating super-fluid, quantised vortices, with a vorticity h/m, form above a critical velocity. Such vortices have been generated in BEC of alkali atoms by different techniques such as (a) wave function engineering of a two-component BEC, (b) decay of solitons, (c) rotation of a thermal cloud before cooling it below the condensation temperature, (d) stirring with an ‘optical’ spoon, (e) rotating a deformation in the anisotropic trap in which the condensate is trapped and (f) by creating Berry phase by adiabatically reversing the axial magnetic field. Since the core of a vortex is a fraction of a micrometer in diameter, it cannot be directly imaged optically. The condensate with vortices is allowed to ballistically expand till the size increases by one order before the vortices are imaged. Surface wave spectroscopy and the change in aspect ratio of a rotating cloud are the other techniques used. Studies have been made on the creation and dynamics of single vortex and on systems with more than a hundred vortices. Results have been obtained on vortex nucleation, stability of vortex structures, nature of the vortex lattice and defects in such a lattice. Important results are: (a) evidence exists that vortex nucleation takes place by a surface mode instability; but this is not the only mechanism; (b) the vortex lattice is perfectly triangular right up to the edge; (c) in the initial stages of rotation of the cloud a tangled web of vortices is seen; it takes a few hundred milliseconds before the vortices arrange themselves in a lattice; this time appears to be independent of temperature; (d) the decay of vortices appears to arise from the transfer of energy to the rotating thermal component and is dependent on temperature; (e) defects in the lattices such as dislocations and grain boundaries are seen; (f) transverse oscillations (Tkachenko modes) of the vortex lattice have been observed; and (g) giant vortices have been produced. These will be discussed.     

Fundamental modes in waveguide pipe twisted by saturated double-well potential

We study fundamental modes trapped in a rotating ring with a saturated nonlinear double-well potential. This model, which is based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, can be constructed in a twisted waveguide pipe in terms of light propagation, or in a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) loaded into a toroidal trap under a combination of a rotating π-out-of-phase linear potential and nonlinear pseudopotential induced by means of a rotating optical field and the Feshbach resonance. Three types of fundamental modes are identified in this model, one symmetric and the other two asymmetric. The shape and stability of the modes and the transitions between different modes are investigated in the first rotational Brillouin zone. A similar model used a Kerr medium to build its nonlinear potential, but we replace it with a saturated nonlinear medium. The model exhibits not only symmetry breaking, but also symmetry recovery. A specific type of unstable asymmetric mode is also found, and the evolution of the unstable asymmetric mode features Josephson oscillation between two linear wells. By considering the model as a configuration of a BEC system, the ground state mode is identified among these three types, which characterize a specific distribution of the BEC atoms around the trap.     

Bright and dark solitons in a quasi-1D Bose-Einstein condensates modelled by 1D Gross-Pitaevskii equation with time-dependent parameters

We investigate the exact bright and dark solitary wave solutions of an effective 1D Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by assuming that the interaction energy is much less than the kinetic energy in the transverse direction. In particular, following the earlier works in the literature Pérez-García et al. (2004) [50], Serkin et al. (2007) [51], Gurses (2007) [52] and Kundu (2009) [53], we point out that the effective 1D equation resulting from the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation can be transformed into the standard soliton (bright/dark) possessing, completely integrable 1D nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation by effecting a change of variables of the coordinates and the wave function. We consider both confining and expulsive harmonic trap potentials separately and treat the atomic scattering length, gain/loss term and trap frequency as the experimental control parameters by modulating them as a function of time. In the case when the trap frequency is kept constant, we show the existence of different kinds of soliton solutions, such as the periodic oscillating solitons, collapse and revival of condensate, snake-like solitons, stable solitons, soliton growth and decay and formation of two-soliton bound state, as the atomic scattering length and gain/loss term are varied. However, when the trap frequency is also modulated, we show the phenomena of collapse and revival of two-soliton like bound state formation of the condensate for double modulated periodic potential and bright and dark solitons for step-wise modulated potentials.     

Experimental Simulation of the Generation of a Vortex Flow on a Water Surface by a Wave Cascade

The generation of a vortex flow by waves on a water surface, which simulate an energy cascade in a system of gravity waves at frequencies of 3, 4, 5, and 6 Hz, has been studied experimentally. It has been found that pumping is accompanied by the propagation of waves on the surface at different angles to the fundamental mode and by a nonlinear interaction between waves resulting in the generation of new harmonics. It has been shown that large-scale flows are formed by modes of the lowest frequency of 3 Hz intersecting at acute angles. The energy distribution of the vortex motion can be described by a power-law function of the wavenumber and is independent of the energy distribution in a system of surface waves. The energy coming to large-scale vortex flows directly from the wave system is transferred to small scales. A direct rather than inverse energy flux is established in the system of vortices.     

The dynamics and stabilities of Bose-Einstein condensates in deep optical lattices

The dynamics and stabilities of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a deep one-dimensional periodic optical lattices with three-body interactions are investigated. By using the tight-binding approximation, the Bloch and the Bogoliubov excitation stabilities and the dynamics of the BEC wavepacket with the effects of the three-body interactions are studied. The critical conditions for occurrence of the dynamical/Landau instabilities, self-trapping/diffusion/breather of wavepacket, and localized soliton are obtained analytically. The results show that the boundaries of the dynamical instability and Landau instability are modified significantly due to the presence of the three-body interactions. It is also revealed that, the initial wavepacket width, the initial momentum, especially, the strength of the three-body force have strong effect on the critical conditions which are used to describe the dynamics of the wavepacket. It is shown that the regions of self-trapping, diffusion, and breather for BEC wavepacket in the parameter space are modified dramatically by the three-body interactions. The analytical results are confirmed by the direct numerical solutions of the discrete GPE.     

Tunneling dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates with higher-order interactions in optical lattice

The nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling and nonlinear Rabi oscillations of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with higher-order atomic interaction between the Bloch bands in an accelerating optical lattice are discussed. Within the two-level model, the tunneling probability of BEC with higher-order atomic interaction between Bloch bands is obtained. We finds that the tunneling rate is closely related to the higher-order atomic interaction. Furthermore, the nonlinear Rabi oscillations of BEC with higher-order atomic interaction between the bands are discussed by imposing a periodic modulation on the level bias. Analytical expressions of the critical higher-order atomic interaction for suppressing/enhancing the Rabi oscillations are obtained. It is shown that the critical value strongly depends on the modulation parameters (i.e., the modulation amplitude and frequency) and the strength of periodic potential.     

Vortex lattices in a rotating Fermi superfluid in the BCS–BEC crossover with many Landau levels

We present an explicit analytical analysis of the ground state of vortex lattice structure, based on a minimization of the generalized Gross–Pitaevskii energy functional in a trapped rotating Fermi superfluid gas. By a Bogoliubov-like transformation we find that the coarse-grained average of the atomic density varies as inverted parabola in three dimensional cases; the Fermi superfluid in the BEC regime enters into the lowest Landau level at fast rotation, in which the vortices form an almost regular triangular lattice over a central region and the vortex lattice is expanded along the radial direction in the outer region; the fluid in the unitarity and BCS regimes occupies many low-lying Landau levels, in which a trapped gas with a triangular vortex lattice has a superfluid core surrounded by a normal gas. The calculation is qualitatively consistent with recent numerical and experimental data both in the vortex lattice structure and vortex numbers and in the density profiles versus the stirring frequency in the whole BCS–BEC crossover.     

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.     

两维有限深势阱中BEC的稳定性分析

研究两维轴对称有限深势阱中BEC的稳定性,利用变分法分别讨论了系统的基态和激发态特性。研究表明系统存在塌缩态、束缚态和扩散态三种状态,并计算出系统状态发生变化的耦合常数的两个临界值,发现势阱的形状与系统的稳定性紧密相关。同时在激发态下进一步讨论了原子间相互作用发生周期性调制的BEC的动力学特性,分析发现有限深势阱中BEC的塌缩可以通过周期性调制散射长度来控制。本文最后讨论了涡旋态下BEC的稳定性,发现系统的塌缩点由于涡旋态的存在而降低。     

The ground state and the tunnelling dynamics of the Bose-Einstein condensate in a tilted shallow trap

The ground state and the tunnelling dynamics of the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) loaded in a tilted shallow trap is studied analytically and numerically. The stable bound state, the quasi-bound state and the diffusion state are predicted. The thresholds for transition between the different states are obtained and the stability diagram in parameter space is presented. The tunnelling dynamics of the system in different states is revealed. The shape of the potential well and the atomic interaction play important role and have coupled effect on the tunnelling dynamics of the system. Furthermore, the resonant tunnelling phenomenon in the parametrically modulated shallow trap is observed. The results show that when the modulating frequency approaches the dipolar mode of the system, resonant tunnelling occurs and the whole system is unstable. Our results provide a theoretical evidence for studying the tunnelling dynamics of the ultracold atomic system.     

Ultracold bosons with 3-body attractive interactions in an optical lattice

We study the effect of an optical lattice (OL) on the ground-state properties of one-dimensional ultracold bosons with three-body attractive interactions and two-body repulsive interactions, which are described by a cubic-quintic Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a periodic potential. Without the optical lattice and with a vanishing two-body interaction term, normalizable soliton solutions of the Townes type are possible only at a critical value of the interaction strength, at which an infinite degeneracy of the ground state occurs; a repulsive two-body interaction makes such localized solutions unstable. We show that the OL opens a stability window around the critical point when the strength of the periodic potential is above a critical threshold. We also consider the effect of an external parabolic trap, studying how the stability properties depend on the matching between minima of the periodic potential and the minimum of the parabolic trap.     

Exotic vortex structures of the dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates trapped in harmonic-like and toroidal potential

Based on the tunable intensity and waist of Gaussian laser, harmonic-like and toroidal potentials can be achieved and the ground-state properties of the dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in such potentials are investigated. It is found that, in the harmonic-like potential, the singly and doubly quantized vortices can exist in the scale condensate and translate respectively into vortex pairs and triangular vortex lattice with increasing dipole–dipole interaction (DDI). Especially, the sandwich-like structure can be observed in the ground-state density profiles by tuning the direction and strength of DDI for some rotating frequency. In the toroidal potential, the competition between the inter-component interaction and DDI can induce the transition between immiscible and miscible states, and results in the structures of a doubly quantized vortex surrounded by a vortex ring. It is worth emphasizing that, with the increasing of DDI, the doubly quantized vortex in the harmonic-like potential becomes two singly quantized vortices, while in the toroidal potential it is no happen due to the presence of Gaussian barrier.