Fast creation of a single vortex in BEC of alkali-metal atoms at a prescribed position and time is still challenging, even though various methods to create single and multiple vortices have been proposed and demonstrated. Topological vortex formation is advantageous in this respect over other methods in that the position and time of vortex formation is highly controllable. This method requires inversion of the bias magnetic field along the axis of the condensate, which leads to unwanted atom loss due to nonadiabatic transitions when the bias field crosses zero. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a scheme that enables a fast creation of a vortex in much shorter time than needed for adiabatic control time by introducing the counterdiabatic field to avert the atom loss. We further introduce a gauge transformation so that the required magnetic field is generated by manipulating the current of the Ioffe bars, which makes our proposal experimentally feasible.
Fast creation of a single vortex in BEC of alkali-metal atoms at a prescribed position and time is still challenging, even though various methods to create single and multiple vortices have been proposed and demonstrated. Topological vortex formation is advantageous in this respect over other methods in that the position and time of vortex formation is highly controllable. This method requires inversion of the bias magnetic field along the axis of the condensate, which leads to unwanted atom loss due to nonadiabatic transitions when the bias field crosses zero. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a scheme that enables a fast creation of a vortex in much shorter time than needed for adiabatic control time by introducing the counterdiabatic field to avert the atom loss. We further introduce a gauge transformation so that the required magnetic field is generated by manipulating the current of the Ioffe bars, which makes our proposal experimentally feasible.
Topological phase imprinting is a well-established technique for deterministic vortex creation in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates of alkali-metal atoms. It was recently shown that counterdiabatic quantum control may accelerate vortex creation in comparison to the standard adiabatic protocol and suppress the atom loss due to nonadiabatic transitions. Here we apply this technique, assisted by an optical plug, for vortex pumping to theoretically show that sequential phase imprinting up to 20 cycles generates a vortex with a very large winding number. Our method significantly increases the fidelity of the pump for rapid pumping compared to the case without the counterdiabatic control, leading to the highest angular momentum per particle reported to date for the vortex pump. Our studies are based on numerical integration of the three-dimensional multicomponent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which conveniently yields the density profiles, phase profiles, angular momentum, and other physically important quantities of the spin-1 system. Our results motivate the experimental realization of the vortex pump and studies of the rich physics it involves.
Topological phase imprinting is a unique technique for vortex formation in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of an alkali-metal gas, in that it does not involve rotation: the BEC is trapped in a quadrupole field with a uniform bias field which is reversed adiabatically leading to vortex formation at the center of the magnetic trap. The scenario has been experimentally verified by Leanhardt et al. employing 23Na atoms. Recently similar experiments have been conducted by Hirotani et al. in which a BEC of 87Rb atoms was used. In the latter experiments the authors found that fine-tuning of the field reverse time Trev is required to achieve stable vortex formation. Otherwise, they often observed vortex fragmentation or a condensate without a vortex. It is shown in this paper that this behavior can be attributed to the heavy mass of the Rb atom. The confining potential, which depends on the eigenvalue mB of the hyperfine spin $\mathbit{F}$ along the magnetic field, is now shifted by the gravitational field perpendicular to the vortex line. Then the positions of two weak-field-seeking states with mB=1 and 2 deviate from each other. This effect is more prominent for BECs with a heavy atomic mass, for which the deviation is greater and, moreover, the Thomas-Fermi radius is smaller. We found, by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation numerically, that two condensates interact in a very complicated way leading to fragmentation of vortices, unless Trev is properly tuned.
We investigate several mechanisms of vortex creation during splitting of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a magnetic double-well trap controlled by a pair of current carrying wires and bias magnetic fields. Our study is motivated by a recent MIT experiment on splitting BECs with a similar trap [Y. Shin et al., Phys. Rev. A 72, 021604 (2005)], where an unexpected fork-like structure appeared in the interference fringes indicating the presence of a singly quantized vortex in one of the interfering condensates. It is well known that in a spin-1 BEC in a quadrupole trap, a doubly quantized vortex is topologically produced by a ``slow'' reversal of bias magnetic field Bz. Since in the experiment a doubly quantized vortex had never been seen, Shin et al. ruled out the topological mechanism and concentrated on the nonadiabatic mechanical mechanism for explanation of the vortex creation. We find, however, that in the magnetic trap considered both mechanisms are possible: singly quantized vortices can be formed in a spin-1 BEC topologically (for example, during the magnetic field switching-off process). We therefore provide a possible alternative explanation for the interference patterns observed in the experiment. We also present a numerical example of creation of singly quantized vortices due to ``fast'' splitting; i.e., by a dynamical (nonadiabatic) mechanism.
The formation of vortices by topological phase engineering has been realized experimentally to create the first two- and four-quantum vortices in dilute atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. We consider a similar system, but in addition to the Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap we employ an additional hexapole field. By controlling cyclically the strengths of these magnetic fields, we show that a fixed amount of vorticity can be added to the condensate in each cycle. In an adiabatic operation of this vortex pump, the appearance of vortices into the condensate is interpreted as the accumulation of a local Berry phase. Our design can be used as an experimentally realizable vortex source for possible vortex-based applications of dilute Bose-Einstein condensates.
Topology provides deep conceptual links between the various branches of physics. Bose–Einstein condensates with spin degrees of freedom are among the most accessible quantum systems available for studying topological structures. A wide range of topological defects and textures available in condensates, such as vortices, monopoles, knots, and skyrmions, are analogous to those predicted in electromagnetism, high-energy physics, and cosmology.
In this dissertation, we numerically and experimentally investigate novel creation methods for topological structures and study their dynamical properties. Specifically, we experimentally observe the evolution of an isolated monopole into a Dirac monopole in the presence of a quadrupole magnetic field. The Dirac monopole appears in the synthetic magnetic field of the condensate and is accompanied by spontaneously emerging nodal lines. We observe the decay of a quantum knot into a polar-core spin vortex in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. Furthermore, we observe that a decaying coreless-vortex state gives rise to a pair of singular SO(3) vortices.
Many of the studied creation methods for topological structures in the condensate rely on adiabatic control of the external magnetic field. The counterdiabatic protocol offers a way to speed up the otherwise slow magnetic field driving required for adiabatic dynamics with a correcting magnetic field. Using this method, we numerically implement a scheme for fast vortex pumping which leads to the vortex with highest angular momentum reported to date in Bose–Einstein condensates with experimentally feasible methods. We further use the counterdiabatic protocol in a novel way to create quantum knots in the condensate.
Another focal point of this dissertation is the study on different types of skyrmions in spinor condensates. Our simulations of two-dimensional skyrmions are in a quantitative agreement with an experiment carried out elsewhere, explaining the experimentally observed instabilities. We numerically analyze the exotic spin-2 skyrmions available in the cyclic and biaxial nematic phases. Importantly, we present the first experimental observations of Shankar skyrmions in spin-1 condensates and analyze their synthetic electromagnetic properties.
This dissertation addresses an extensive amount of topological structures available in the condensate, but many different structures await future studies. In addition, the precise computational characterization of the elementary excitations of monopoles, knots, and skyrmions is of great interest. The results of this dissertation form a sturdy basis for future experimental studies on the dynamics of topological structures in spinor condensates.; Topologia tarjoaa syvallisia kasitteellisia yhteyksia fysiikan eri haarojen valilla. Bosen–Einsteinin kondensaatit spin-vapausasteilla ovat yksia monipuolisimmista systeemeista topologisten rakenteiden tutkimukseen. Laaja kirjo kondensaatissa esiintyvia topologisia rakenteita, kuten kvanttipyorteet, monopolit, solmut ja skyrmionit, ovat…
We studied the nucleation of quadruple-quantized vortices in Bose–Einstein condensates confined in a quadrupole-Ioffe-configuration (QUIC) magnetic trap by means of the topological phase imprinting method, wherein the initially aligned atomic spins were adiabatically reversed by applying an external bias magnetic field. We calculated the change in the magnetic field distributions of the trap when a homogeneous or a gradient bias field was applied for reversing the spins, and almost the same results were obtained for both cases. We applied the gradient bias field using a single coil because of its simplicity and stability. Vortices were successfully created at the reversal time of atomic spins between 2 and 16 ms. Moreover, the vortices were observed at a holding time of up to 9 ms in the magnetic trap after a constant reversal time of 5 ms.