A method to produce a spin-dependent rotating potential using near-resonant circularly polarized laser beams is proposed. It is shown that half-quantum vortices are nucleated in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with an antiferromagnetic interaction. In contrast to the vortex nucleation in a scalar BEC, the spin-vortex nucleation occurs at a low rotation frequency ($\ensuremath{\simeq}0.1{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ with ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ being the radial trap frequency) in a short nucleation time $\ensuremath{\simeq}50\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ms}$ without dissipation. A method for nondestructive measurement of half-quantum vortices is discussed.
In this paper, we numerically investigate the vortex nucleation in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a double-well potential and subjected to a density-dependent gauge potential. A rotating Bose-Einstein condensate, when confined in a double-well potential, not only gives rise to visible vortices but also produces hidden vortices. We have empirically developed Feynman's rule for the number of vortices versus angular momentum in Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of density-dependent gauge potentials. The variation of the average angular momentum with the number of vortices is also sensitive to the nature of the nonlinear rotation due to the density-dependent gauge potentials. The empirical result agrees well with the numerical simulations and the connection is verified by means of curve-fitting analysis. The modified Feynman rule is further confirmed for the BECs confined in harmonic and toroidal traps. In addition, we show the nucleation of vortices in double-well and toroidally confined Bose-Einstein condensates solely through nonlinear rotations (without any trap rotation) arising through the density-dependent gauge potential.
A rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensate in a symmetric two-dimensional trap can be described with the lowest Landau-level set of states. In this case, the condensate wave function $\ensuremath{\psi}(x,y)$ is a Gaussian function of
r2=x2+y2, multiplied by an analytic function
P(z) of the single complex variable
z=x+iy; the zeros of
P(z) denote the positions of the vortices. Here, a similar description is used for a rapidly rotating anisotropic two-dimensional trap with arbitrary anisotropy $({\ensuremath{\omega}}_{x}∕{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{y}\ensuremath{\leqslant}1)$. The corresponding condensate wave function $\ensuremath{\psi}(x,y)$ has the form of a complex anisotropic Gaussian with a phase proportional to
xy, multiplied by an analytic function $P(\ensuremath{\zeta})$, where $\ensuremath{\zeta}\ensuremath{\propto}x+i{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{\ensuremath{-}}y$ and $0\ensuremath{\leqslant}{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\leqslant}1$ is a real parameter that depends on the trap anisotropy and the rotation frequency. The zeros of $P(\ensuremath{\zeta})$ again fix the locations of the vortices. Within the set of lowest Landau-level states at zero temperature, an anisotropic parabolic density profile provides an absolute minimum for the energy, with the vortex density decreasing slowly and anisotropically away from the trap center.