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arXiv:2005.09203 · Physical Review A

Properties of a nematic spin vortex in an antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate

Andrew P. C. Underwood, D. Baillie, P. B. Blakie, Hiromitsu Takeuchi

Published Aug 26, 2020• 10 citations
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Abstract

A spin-1 condensate with antiferromagnetic interactions supports nematic spin vortices in the easy-plane polar phase. These vortices have a $2\ensuremath{\pi}$ winding of the nematic director with a core structure that depends on the quadratic Zeeman energy. We characterize the properties of the nematic spin vortex in a uniform quasi-two-dimensional system. We also obtain the vortex excitation spectrum and use it to quantify its stability against dissociating into two half-quantum vortices, finding a parameter regime where the nematic spin vortex is dynamically stable. These results are supported by full dynamical simulations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.102.023326

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A spin-1 condensate with antiferromagnetic interactions supports nematic spin vortices in the easy-plane polar phase. These vortices have a 2\ensuremathπ2\ensuremath{\pi}2\ensuremathπ winding of the nematic director with a core structure that depends on the quadratic Zeeman energy. We characterize the properties of the nematic spin vortex in a uniform quasi-two-dimensional system. We also obtain the vortex excitation spectrum and use it to quantify its stability against dissociating into two half-quantum vortices, finding a parameter regime where the nematic spin vortex is dynamically stable. These results are supported by full dynamical simulations.
We investigate the phase-transition dynamics of a quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate from the easy-axis polar phase to the easy-plane polar phase, which is initiated by suddenly changing the sign of the quadratic Zeeman energy qqq. We observe the emergence and decay of spin turbulence and the formation of half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in the quenched condensate. The characteristic time and length scales of the turbulence generation dynamics are proportional to ${|q|}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ as inherited from the dynamic instability of the initial state. In the evolution of the spin turbulence, spin-wave excitations develop from large to small length scales, suggesting a direct energy cascade, and the spin population for the axial polar domains exhibit a nonexponential decay. The final equilibrated condensate contains HQVs, and the number is found to increase and saturate with increasing ∣q∣|q|∣q∣. Our results demonstrate the time-space scaling properties of the phase-transition dynamics near the critical point and the peculiarities of the spin-turbulence state of the antiferromagnetic spinor condensate.
We consider the formation of order in a quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin-1 condensate quenched from an easy-axis to an easy-plane nematic phase. We define the relevant order parameter to quantify the spin-nematic degrees of freedom and study the evolution of the spin-nematic and superfluid order during the coarsening dynamics using numerical simulations. We observe dynamical scaling in the late-time dynamics, with both types of order extending across the system with a diffusive growth law. We identify half-quantum vortices as the relevant topological defects of the ordering dynamics and demonstrate that the growth of both types of order is determined by the mutual annihilation of these vortices.
We find a novel topological defect in a spin-nematic superfluid theoretically. A quantized vortex spontaneously breaks its axisymmetry, leading to an elliptic vortex in nematic-spin Bose-Einstein condensates with small positive quadratic Zeeman effect. The new vortex is considered the Joukowski transform of a conventional vortex. Its oblateness grows when the Zeeman length exceeds the spin healing length. This structure is sustained by balancing the hydrodynamic potential and the elasticity of a soliton connecting two spin spots, which are observable by in situ magnetization imaging. The theoretical analysis clearly defines the difference between half quantum vortices of the polar and antiferromagnetic phases in spin-1 condensates.
We report the observation of half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in the easy-plane polar phase of an antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Using in-situ magnetization-sensitive imaging, we observe that a singly charged quantum vortex dissociates into a pair of HQVs with opposite core magnetization. The dissociation dynamics is investigated by measuring the temporal evolution of the separation distance of the HQV pair. The separating behavior of the HQVs shows the short-range nature of their interactions. We observe that the dissociation process is activated faster with larger thermal spin fluctuations in the condensate, confirming the energetic instability of a singly charged vortex state.
The phase diagram of lowest-energy vortices in the polar phase of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates is investigated theoretically. Singly quantized vortices are categorized by the local ordered state in the vortex core and three types of vortices are found as lowest-energy vortices, which are elliptic AF-core vortices, axisymmetric F-core vortices, and N-core vortices. These vortices are named after the local ordered state, ferromagnetic (F), antiferromagnetic (AF), broken-axisymmetry (BA), and normal (N) states apart from the bulk polar (P) state. The N-core vortex is a conventional vortex, in the core of which the superfluid order parameter vanishes. The other two types of vortices are stabilized when the quadratic Zeeman energy is smaller than a critical value. The axisymmetric F-core vortex is the lowest-energy vortex for ferromagnetic interaction, and it has an F core surrounded by a BA skin that forms a ferromagnetic-spin texture, as exemplified by the localized Mermin-Ho texture. The elliptic AF-core vortex is stabilized for antiferromagnetic interaction; the vortex core has both nematic-spin and ferromagnetic orders locally and is composed of the AF-core soliton spanned between two BA edges. The phase transition from the N-core vortex to the other two vortices is continuous, whereas that between the AF-core and F-core vortices is discontinuous. The critical point of the continuous vortex-core transition is computed by the perturbation analysis of the Bogoliubov theory and the Ginzburg-Landau formalism describes the critical behavior. The influence of trapping potential on the core structure is also investigated.
We report on the observation of half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in the easy-plane polar phase of an antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Using in situ magnetization-sensitive imaging, we observe that pairs of HQVs with opposite core magnetization are generated when singly charged quantum vortices are injected into the condensate. The dynamics of HQV pair formation is characterized by measuring the temporal evolutions of the pair separation distance and the core magnetization, which reveals the short-range nature of the repulsive interactions between the HQVs. We find that spin fluctuations arising from thermal population of transverse magnon excitations do not significantly affect the HQV pair formation dynamics. Our results demonstrate the instability of a singly charged vortex in the antiferromagnetic spinor condensate.