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arXiv:1611.01691 · Physical Review X

Vortex Reconnections and Rebounds in Trapped Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensates

Simone Serafini, Luca Galantucci, Elena Iseni, Tom Bienaimé, R. N. Bisset, Carlo F. Barenghi, F. Dalfovo, Giacomo Lamporesi, Gabriele Ferrari

Published May 25, 2017• 73 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Understanding interactions between filamentary structures could offer important insights into the dynamics of a wide range of physical systems. A new imaging technique reveals novel vortex filament interactions in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and helps establish BECs as a powerful laboratory for investigating filament dynamics.
DOI
10.1103/physrevx.7.021031

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Reconnections and interactions of filamentary coherent structures play a fundamental role in the dynamics of fluids,redistributing energy and helicity among the length scales and inducing fine-scale turbulent mixing. Unlike ordinary fluids, where vorticity is a continuous field, in quantum fluids vorticity is concentrated into discrete (quantized) vortex lines turning vortex reconnections into isolated events, conceptually easier to study. Here we report experimental and numerical observations of three-dimensional quantum vortex interactions in a cigar-shaped atomic Bose--Einstein Condensate. In addition to standard reconnections, already numerically and experimentally observed in homogeneous systems away from boundaries, we show that double reconnections, rebounds and ejections can also occur as a consequence of the non-homogeneous, confined nature of the system.
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