Recent experiments as well as theoretical calculations show that the theory of vortex oscillations in rotating superfluids in the case of the slowest modes (Tkachenko modes) in finite containers must take into account vortex pinning at the container bottom except for the case of very long containers.
The present paper suggests the continuum theory of Tkachenko modes in a rotating two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate taking into account density inhomogeneity and compressibility of the condensate. The theory is based on the solution of coupled hydrodynamic equations for vortex and liquid motion with proper boundary conditions, which were derived for the condensate described by the Thomas-Fermi approximation. Compressibility becomes essential at rapid rotation with angular velocity close to the trap frequency. The theory is in reasonable agreement with experimental observation of Tkachenko modes.
We directly image Tkachenko waves in a vortex lattice in a dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensate. The low (sub-Hz) resonant frequencies are a consequence of the small but nonvanishing elastic shear modulus of the vortex-filled superfluid. The frequencies are measured for rotation rates as high as 98% of the centrifugal limit for the harmonically confined gas. Agreement with a hydrodynamic theory worsens with increasing rotation rate, perhaps due to the increasing fraction of the volume displaced by the vortex cores. We also observe two low-lying m=0 longitudinal modes at about 20 times higher frequency.
After delineating the physical regimes that vortex lattices encounter in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates as the rotation rate $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ increases, we derive the normal modes of the vortex lattice in two dimensions at zero temperature. Taking into account effects of the finite compressibility, we find an inertial mode of frequency $\ensuremath{\geqslant}2\ensuremath{\Omega}$, and a primarily transverse Tkachenko mode, whose frequency goes from being linear in the wave vector in the slowly rotating regime, where $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ is small compared with the lowest compressional mode frequency, to quadratic in the wave vector in the opposite limit. We calculate the correlation functions of vortex displacements and phase, density and superfluid velocities, and find that the zero-point excitations of the soft quadratic Tkachenko modes lead in a large system to a loss of long-range phase correlations, growing logarithmically with distance, and hence lead to a fragmented state at zero temperature. The vortex positional ordering is preserved at zero temperature, but the thermally excited Tkachenko modes cause the relative positional fluctuations to grow logarithmically with separation at finite temperature. The superfluid density, defined in terms of the transverse velocity autocorrelation function, vanishes at all temperatures. Finally we construct the long-wavelength single-particle Green's function in the rotating system and calculate the condensate depletion as a function of temperature.