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arXiv:1306.4266 · Physical Review Letters

Quantized Superfluid Vortex Rings in the Unitary Fermi Gas

Aurel Bulgac, Michael McNeil Forbes, Michelle M. Kelley, Kenneth J. Roche, Gabriel Wlazłowski

Published Jan 16, 2014• 84 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In a recent article, Yefsah et al. [Nature (London) 499, 426 (2013)] report the observation of an unusual excitation in an elongated harmonically trapped unitary Fermi gas. After phase imprinting a domain wall, they observe oscillations almost an order of magnitude slower than predicted by any theory of domain walls which they interpret as a "heavy soliton" of inertial mass some 200 times larger than the free fermion mass or 50 times larger than expected for a domain wall. We present compelling evidence that this "soliton" is instead a quantized vortex ring, by showing that the main aspects of the experiment can be naturally explained within the framework of time-dependent superfluid density functional theories.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.112.025301

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In a recent article, Yefsah et al. [Nature (London) 499, 426 (2013)] report the observation of an unusual excitation in an elongated harmonically trapped unitary Fermi gas. After phase imprinting a domain wall, they observe oscillations almost an order of magnitude slower than predicted by any theory of domain walls which they interpret as a "heavy soliton" of inertial mass some 200 times larger than the free fermion mass or 50 times larger than expected for a domain wall. We present compelling evidence that this "soliton" is instead a quantized vortex ring, by showing that the main aspects of the experiment can be naturally explained within the framework of time-dependent superfluid density functional theories.
A recent article, Yefsah et al., Nature 499, 426 (2013) [1], reported an unusual excitation in a harmonically trapped unitary Fermi gas. The experiment imprints a domain wall in the trap resulting in oscillations that have periods an order of magnitude longer than the trapping period. The authors interpretted the results as ‘heavy solitons,’ but vortex rings provide a more natural explanation of the observed periods. This paper reports the results of simulations of a vortex ring in a harmonic trap to mimic the experiment, using the density functional theory, specically the extended Thomas-Fermi Gross-Pitaevskii model. Vortex rings in harmonic traps experience long oscillatory periods, comparable to the oscillations found in the experiment. It was found that the oscillatory period of the vortex ring increases with the aspect ratio of the trap, and decreases for oscillations with smaller amplitudes of oscillation. Additionally, oscillations experienced anti-damping when the system was not allowed to cool completely, matching well with the experiment’s observed anti-damped oscillations.
We use the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation to study the motion of a vortex ring produced by phase imprinting on an elongated cloud of cold atoms. Our approach models the experiments of Yefsah et al. [Nature (London) 499, 426 (2013)] on 6{}^{6}6Li in the Bose-Einstein-condensate regime where the fermions are tightly bound into bosonic dimers. We find ring oscillation periods which are much larger than the period of the axial harmonic trap. Our results lend further strength to Bulgac et al.'s arguments (arXiv:1306.4266) that the ``heavy solitons'' seen in those experiments are actually vortex rings. We numerically calculate the periods of oscillation for the vortex rings as a function of interaction strength, trap aspect ratio, and minimum vortex ring radius. In the presence of axial anisotropies the rings undergo complicated internal dynamics where they break into sets of vortex lines, then later combine into rings. These structures oscillate with a similar frequency to simple axially symmetric rings.
We follow the time evolution of a superfluid Fermi gas of resonantly interacting ^{6}Li atoms after a phase imprint. Via tomographic imaging, we observe the formation of a planar dark soliton, its subsequent snaking, and its decay into a vortex ring, which, in turn, breaks to finally leave behind a single solitonic vortex. In intermediate stages, we find evidence for an exotic structure resembling the Φ soliton, a combination of a vortex ring and a vortex line. Direct imaging of the nodal surface reveals its undulation dynamics and its decay via the puncture of the initial soliton plane. The observed evolution of the nodal surface represents dynamics beyond superfluid hydrodynamics, calling for a microscopic description of unitary fermionic superfluids out of equilibrium.
A fully analytical theory of a traveling soliton in a one-dimensional fermionic superfluid is developed within the framework of time-dependent self-consistent Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations, which are solved exactly in the Andreev approximation. The soliton manifests itself in a kinklike profile of the superconducting order parameter and hosts a pair of Andreev bound states in its core. They adjust to the soliton's motion and play an important role in its stabilization. A phase jump across the soliton and its energy decrease with the soliton's velocity and vanish at the critical velocity, corresponding to the Landau criterion, where the soliton starts emitting quasiparticles and becomes unstable. The ``inertial'' and ``gravitational'' masses of the soliton are calculated and the former is shown to be orders of magnitude larger than the latter. This results in a slow motion of the soliton in a harmonic trap, reminiscent of the observed behavior of a solitonlike texture in related experiments in cold fermion gases [T. Yefsah et al., Nature (London) 499, 426 (2013)]. Furthermore, we calculate the full nonlinear dispersion relation of the soliton and solve the classical equations of motion in a trap. The strong nonlinearity at high velocities gives rise to anharmonic oscillatory motion of the soliton. A careful analysis of this anharmonicity may provide a means to experimentally measure the nonlinear soliton spectrum in superfluids.
I study vortex ring oscillations in a superfluid, trapped in an elongated trap, under the conditions of the Local Density Approximation. On the basis of the Hamiltonian formalism I develop a hydrodynamic theory, which is valid for an arbitrary superfluid and depends only on the equation of state. The problem is reduced to an ordinary differential equation for the ring radius. The cases of the dilute BEC and the Fermi gas at unitarity are investigated in detail. Simple analytical equations for the periods of small oscillations are obtained and the equations of non-linear dynamics are solved in quadratures. The results agree with available numerical calculations. Experimental possibilities to check the predictions are discussed.
6 Li atoms following a one-sided phase imprint. Via tomographic imaging, we observe the formation of a planar dark soliton, and its subsequent snaking and decay into a vortex ring. The latter eventually breaks at the boundary of the superuid, nally leaving behind a single, remnant solitonic vortex. The nodal surface is directly imaged and reveals its decay into a vortex ring via a puncture of the initial soliton plane. At intermediate stages we nd evidence for more exotic structures resembling -solitons. The observed evolution of the nodal surface represents dynamics that occurs at the length scale of the interparticle spacing, thus providing new experimental input for microscopic theories of strongly correlated fermions.