Synthetic magnetohydrodynamics in Bose-Einstein condensates and routes to vortex nucleation
L. B. Taylor, Rick van Bijnen, Duncan H J O’Dell +3 more
Engineering of synthetic magnetic flux in Bose-Einstein condensates [Lin et al., Nature (London) 462, 628 (2009)] has prospects for attaining the high vortex densities necessary to emulate the fractional quantum Hall effect. We analytically establish the hydrodynamical behavior of a condensate in a uniform synthetic magnetic field, including its density and velocity profile. Importantly, we find that the onset of vortex nucleation observed experimentally corresponds to a dynamical instability in the hydrodynamical solutions and reveal other routes to instability and anticipated vortex nucleation.
arXiv:1011.4315•Physical Review A•Aug 18, 2011•5 citations