arXiv:0704.2431 · Physical Review A
Vortex trapping in suddenly connected Josephson junctions of Bose-Einstein condensates
Parag Ghosh, Fernando Sols
Abstract
We investigate the problem of vortex trapping in cyclically coupled Bose-Josephson junctions. Starting with $N$ independent Bose-Einstein condensates we couple the condensates through Josephson links and allow the system to reach a stable circulation by adding a dissipative term in our semiclassical equations of motion. The central question we address concerns the probability of trapping a vortex with winding number $m$. Our numerical simulations reveal that the final distribution of winding numbers is narrower than the initial distribution of total phases, indicating an increased probability for no-vortex configurations. Specifically, the final width of the distribution of winding numbers for $N$ sites scales as $\ensuremath{\lambda}{N}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$, where $\ensuremath{\alpha}=0.47\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01$ and $\ensuremath{\lambda}<0.67$ (the value predicted for the initial distribution). The actual value of $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ is found to depend on the strength of dissipation. The nonlinearity of the problem also manifests itself in the result that it is possible to obtain a nonzero circulation starting with zero total phase around the loop.