Spontaneous Formation of Antiferromagnetic Vortex Lattice in a Fast Rotating BEC with Dipole Interactions

When a Bose-Einstein condensate is set to rotate,superfluid vortices will be formed,which finally condense into a vortex lattice as the rotation frequency further increases.We show that the dipole-dipole interactions renormalize the short-range interaction strength and result in a distinction between interactions of parallel-polarized atoms and interactions of antiparallel-polarized atoms.This effect may lead to a spontaneous breakdown of the rapidly rotating Bose condensate into a novel anti-ferromagnetic-like vortex lattice.The upward-polarized Bose condensate forms a vortex lattice,which is staggered against a downward-polarized vortex lattice.A phase diagram related to the coupling strength is obtained.     

Vortex-lattice dynamics in rotating spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We observe interlaced square vortex lattices in rotating dilute-gas spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). After preparing a hexagonal vortex lattice in a one-component BEC in an internal atomic state |1, we coherently transfer a fraction of the superfluid to a different state |2. The subsequent evolution of this pseudo-spin-1/2 superfluid towards a state of offset square lattices involves an intriguing interplay of phase-separation and -mixing dynamics, both macroscopically and on the length scale of the vortex cores, and a stage of vortex turbulence. The stability of the square structure is proved by its response to applied shear perturbations. An interference technique shows the spatial offset between the two vortex lattices. Vortex cores in either component are filled by fluid of the other component, such that the spin-1/2 order parameter forms a Skyrmion lattice.     

Dynamical creation of fractionalized vortices and vortex lattices

We investigate the dynamic creation of fractionalized half-quantum vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates of sodium atoms. Our simulations show that both individual half-quantum vortices and vortex lattices can be created in rotating optical traps when additional pulsed magnetic trapping potentials are applied. We also find that a distinct periodically modulated spin-density-wave spatial structure is always embedded in square half-quantum vortex lattices. This structure can be conveniently probed by taking absorption images of ballistically expanding cold atoms in a Stern-Gerlach field.     

Delocalization in two-dimensional disordered Bose systems and depinning transition in the vortex state in superconductors

We investigate a two-dimensional (2D) Bose system with the long range interactions in the presence of disorder. Formation of the bound states at strong impurity sites gives rise to a depletion of the superfluid density. We predict the intermediate superfluid state where the condensate and localized bosons are present simultaneously. We find that interactions suppress localization and that with the increase of the boson density the system experiences a sharp delocalization crossover into a state where all bosons are delocalized. We map our results onto a 3D system of vortices in type II superconductors in the presence of columnar defects; the intermediate superfluid state maps to an intermediate vortex liquid where vortex liquid neighbors pinned vortices. We predict the depinning crossover within the vortex liquid and depinning induced vortex lattice-Bose glass melting.     

Vortex phase diagram in rotating two-component Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate the structure of vortex states in rotating two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with equal intracomponent but varying intercomponent-coupling constants. A phase diagram in the intercomponent-coupling versus rotation-frequency plane reveals rich equilibrium structures of vortex states. As the ratio of intercomponent to intracomponent couplings increases, the interlocked vortex lattices undergo phase transitions from triangular to square, to double-core lattices, and eventually develop interwoven "serpentine" vortex sheets with each component made up of chains of singly quantized vortices.     

Finite vortex numbers and symmetric vortex structures in a rotating trapped Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover

The ground state of a three-dimensional (3D) rotating trapped superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS-BEC crossover is mapped to finite N _v -body vortex states by a simple ansatz. The total vortex energy is measured from the ground-state energy of the system in the absence of the vortices. The vortex state is stable since the vortex potential and rotation energies are attractive while the vortex kinetic energy and interaction between vortices are repulsive. By combining the analytical and numerical works for the minimal vortex energy, the 2D configurations of N _v vortices are studied by taking into account of the finite size effects both on xy-plane and on z-direction. The calculated vortex numbers as a function of the interaction strength are appropriate to the renew experimental results by Zwierlein in [High-temperature superfluidity in a ultracold Fermi gas, Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006]. The numerical results show that there exist two types of vortex structures: the trap center is occupied and unoccupied by a vortex, even in the case of N _v < 10 with regular polygon and in the case of N _v ≥ 10 with finite triangle lattice. The rotation frequency dependent vortex numbers with different interaction strengths are also discussed.     

Two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with a large number of vortices

We consider the condensate wave function of a rapidly rotating two-component Bose gas with an equal number of particles in each component. If the interactions between like and unlike species are very similar (as occurs for two hyperfine states of (87)Rb or (23)Na) we find that the two components contain identical rectangular vortex lattices, where the unit cell has an aspect ratio of sqrt[3], and one lattice is displaced to the center of the unit cell of the other. Our results are based on an exact evaluation of the vortex lattice energy in the large angular momentum (or quantum Hall) regime.     

Vortex deconfinement in the XY model with a magnetic field

We study vortex unbinding for the classical two-dimensional XY model in a magnetic field on square and triangular lattices. A renormalization group analysis combined with duality in the model shows that at high temperature and high field, the vortices unbind as the magnetic field is lowered in a two-step process: strings of overturned spins first proliferate and then vortices unbind. The transitions are highly continuous but are not of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type. The unbound vortex fixed point is shown to inherit properties of the underlying lattice, in particular containing a set of nodal lines that reflect the lattice symmetry.     

Twisted vortex state

We study a twisted vortex bundle where quantized vortices form helices circling around the axis of the bundle in a "force-free" configuration. Such a state is created by injecting vortices into a rotating vortex-free superfluid. Using continuum theory we determine the structure and the relaxation of the twisted state. This is confirmed by numerical calculations. We also present experimental evidence of the twisted vortex state in superfluid 3He-B.     

Vortex lattices in rotating atomic Bose gases with non-local interactions

We study the groundstates of rotating atomic Bose gases with non-local interactions. We focus on the weak-interaction limit of a model involving s- and d-wave interactions. With increasing d-wave interaction, the mean-field groundstate undergoes a series of transitions between vortex lattices of different symmetries (triangular, square, “stripe” and “bubble” crystal phases). We discuss the stability of these phases to quantum fluctuations. Using exact diagonalization studies, we show that with increasing d-wave interaction, the incompressible Laughlin state at filling factor ν=1/2 is replaced by compressible stripe and bubble states.     

Astigmatic telescopic transformation of a high-order optical vortex

Properties of an optical vortex light beam formed after the astigmatic telescopic transformation of a circular Laguerre-Gaussian mode are considered both theoretically and experimentally. The beam evolution is found to be in conformity with the general notions on the high-order optical vortex symmetry breakdown. Upon propagation, the asymmetric beam shows a sort of rotation of its transverse profile in accord with the energy circulation in the original circular mode; this process is described on the base of the beam intensity moments and the vortex and asymmetry components of its orbital angular momentum. An l-charged optical vortex converts into |l| secondary first-order vortices positioned on a straight line crossing the beam axis. Orientation of this straight line in the beam cross section and spatial separation of the secondary vortex cores depend on the propagation distance. Morphology (orientation and anisotropy) of all the secondary vortices is the same and depends on the propagation distance; the anisotropy can be characterized by the vortex component of the beam angular momentum. At certain distance, relative separation of secondary vortices with respect to the beam transverse size reaches its maximum that corresponds to the minimum anisotropy of the vortices. The results can be useful in the context of current research of the optical vortex arrays.     

Nonlinear generation of vorticity in thin smectic films

The energy levels of the fermions bound to the vortex are considered for vortices in the superfluid/superconducting systems that contain the symmetry protected plane of zeroes in the gap function in bulk. The Caroli–de Gennes–Matricon branches with different approach zero energy level at p_z → 0. The density of states of the bound fermions diverges at zero energy giving rise to the \(\sqrt \Omega \) dependence of the density of states in the polar phase of superfluid ³He rotating with the angular velocity Ω and to the \(\sqrt B \) dependence of the density of states for superconductors in the (d_xz + id_yz)-wave pairing state.     

Analytical approach to quantum phase transitions of ultracold Bose gases in bipartite optical lattices using the generalized Green’s function method

In order to investigate the quantum phase transitions and the time-of-flight absorption pictures analytically in a systematic way for ultracold Bose gases in bipartite optical lattices, we present a generalized Green’s function method. Utilizing this method, we study the quantum phase transitions of ultracold Bose gases in two types of bipartite optical lattices, i.e., a hexagonal lattice with normal Bose–Hubbard interaction and a d-dimensional hypercubic optical lattice with extended Bose–Hubbard interaction. Furthermore, the time-of-flight absorption pictures of ultracold Bose gases in these two types of lattices are also calculated analytically. In hexagonal lattice, the time-of-flight interference patterns of ultracold Bose gases obtained by our analytical method are in good qualitative agreement with the experimental results of Soltan-Panahi, et al. [Nat. Phys. 7, 434 (2011)]. In square optical lattice, the emergence of peaks at \(\left( { \pm \frac{\pi }{a}, \pm \frac{\pi }{a}} \right)\) in the time-of-flight absorption pictures, which is believed to be a sort of evidence of the existence of a supersolid phase, is clearly seen when the system enters the compressible phase from charge-density-wave phase.     

Superfluid to Mott‐insulator transition in an anisotropic two‐dimensional optical lattice

We study the superfluid to Mott‐insulator transition of bosons in an optical anisotropic lattice by employing the Bose‐Hubbard model living on a two‐dimensional lattice with anisotropy parameter κ. The compressible superfluid state and incompressible Mott‐insulator (MI) lobes are efficiently described analytically, using the quantum U(1) rotor approach. The ground state phase diagram showing the evolution of the MI lobes is quantified for arbitrary values of κ, corresponding to various kind of lattices: from square, through rectangular to almost one‐dimensional.     

Vortex states of rapidly rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensates

We show that, in the Thomas-Fermi regime, the cores of vortices in rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensates adjust in radius as the rotation velocity, Omega, grows, thus precluding a phase transition associated with core overlap at high vortex density. In both a harmonic trap and a rotating hard-walled bucket, the core size approaches a limiting fraction of the intervortex spacing. At large rotation speeds, a system confined in a bucket develops, within Thomas-Fermi, a hole along the rotation axis, and eventually makes a transition to a giant vortex state with all the vorticity contained in the hole.