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Chaotic few-body vortex dynamics in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

Tiantian Zhang, James Schloss, Andreas M. D. Thomasen, L. ORiordan, Thomas Busch, Angela White

Published May 9, 2019• 5 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We investigate a small vortex-lattice system of four corotating vortices in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate and find that the vortex dynamics display chaotic behavior after a system quench introduced by reversing the direction of circulation of a single vortex through a phase-imprinting process. By tracking the vortex trajectories and Lyapunov exponent, we show the onset of chaotic dynamics is not immediate, but occurs at later times and is accelerated by the close approach and separation of all vortices in a scattering event. The techniques we develop could potentially be applied to create locally induced chaotic dynamics in larger lattice systems as a stepping stone to study the role of chaotic events in turbulent vortex dynamics.

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We investigate a small vortex-lattice system of four corotating vortices in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate and find that the vortex dynamics display chaotic behavior after a system quench introduced by reversing the direction of circulation of a single vortex through a phase-imprinting process. By tracking the vortex trajectories and Lyapunov exponent, we show the onset of chaotic dynamics is not immediate, but occurs at later times and is accelerated by the close approach and separation of all vortices in a scattering event. The techniques we develop could potentially be applied to create locally induced chaotic dynamics in larger lattice systems as a stepping stone to study the role of chaotic events in turbulent vortex dynamics.
Quantum vortices in superfluid Bose Einstein condensates (BECs) are excellent candidates\nfor studying hydrodynamic phenomena, such as turbulence and chaos, due to the\nquantization of vortex circulation and the absence of dissipation in BECs. Since the early\n2000s, many experimental groups have successfully observed vortices in dilute atomic\nBECs.\n\nThis work mainly focuses on creating quantum chaos with a few vortices in a twodimensional\nBEC of Rubidium􀀀87. We use graphics processing unit (GPU) computing methods to simulate our BEC trapped inside a harmonic potential with tight trapping in one direction. The quantum vortices are created by rotating the condensate. After generating the ground state of the BEC with a small number of singly charged vortices with positive phase winding, we imprint a 4\\pi phase winding on top of one vortex in the opposite orientation to that of the original vortex. This phase imprinting annihilates the preexisting vortex and creates a new singly-charged vortex with negative phase winding. Due to the high resolution of our system and an excellent vortex tracking algorithm, the location of phase imprinting can be delicately controlled.\n\nBoth the individual vortex dynamics and the dynamics of the entire system of vortices\nafter flipping a vortex have shown strong signs of chaos. This chaotic nature is\nfurther confirmed both qualitatively and quantitatively by employing two chaos indicators\non our numerical results. These chaos indicators are the Lyapunov exponent spectrum\nand the Smaller ALignment Index (SALI). The Lyapunov exponent remains positive and\nconverges to a positive value during an experimentally realistic time period, which is the\nsmoking gun for chaotic behaviour.
We study the dynamics of small vortex clusters with a few (2-4) corotating vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates by means of experiments, numerical computations, and theoretical analysis. All of these approaches corroborate the counterintuitive presence of a dynamical instability of symmetric vortex configurations. The instability arises as a pitchfork bifurcation at sufficiently large values of the vortex system angular momentum that induces the emergence and stabilization of asymmetric rotating vortex configurations. The latter are quantified in the theoretical model and observed in the experiments. The dynamics is explored both for the integrable two-vortex particle system, where a reduction of the phase space of the system provides valuable insight, as well as for the nonintegrable three- (or more) vortex case, which additionally admits the possibility of chaotic trajectories.
Vortex lattices in rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates are systems of topological excitations that arrange themselves into periodic patterns. Here we show how phase-imprinting techniques can be used to create a controllable number of defects in these lattices and examine the resulting dynamics. Even though we describe our system using the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii theory, the full range of many-particle effects among the vortices can be studied. In particular we find the existence of localized vacancies that are quasistable over long periods of time and characterize the effects on the background lattice through the use of the orientational correlation function and Delaunay triangulation.
We study the effect of atomic interaction on the localization and the associated dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in a one-dimensional quasiperiodic optical lattice and random disordered potentials. When the interactions are absent, the condensates exhibit localization, which weakens as we increase the interaction strength beyond a threshold value for both potential types. We inspect the localized and delocalized states by perturbing the system via quenching the interaction strength instantaneously to zero and studying the dynamics of the condensate, which we further corroborate using the out-of-time-order correlator. The temporal behavior of the time correlator displays regular dynamics for the localized state, while it shows temporal chaos for the delocalized state. We confirm this dynamical behavior by analyzing the power spectral density of the time correlator. We further identify that the condensate admits a quasiperiodic route to chaotic dynamics for both the potentials. Finally, we present the variation of the maximal Lyapunov exponents for different nonlinearity and disorder strengths that have a positive value in the regime where the time-correlator function shows chaotic behavior. Through this, we establish the strong connection between the spatially delocalized state of the condensate and its temporal chaos.
Binary Bose-Einstein condensates of two distinct atomic species are studied, with interesting effects being verified due to the imbalance of atomic masses. We study the formation of vortices and associated turbulence flows created by stirring two mass-imbalanced coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in the miscible regime. We consider the mixture in the laboratory frame, confined in a pancake-like harmonic trap slightly perturbed elliptically by a time-dependent periodic potential, which introduces turbulent dynamics with final stable patterns of vortices, induced by the periodicity of the perturbation. Derived rotational frequencies are shown to be associated with the observed vortex patterns in the asymptotic regime, with a correspondence between the stirring procedure and a direct time-independent approach being indicated. It was also confirmed that a larger pattern of vortices is supported by the higher mass condensed species at the same frequency. For the experimentally accessible mixtures $^{85}\mathrm{Rb}\text{\ensuremath{-}}^{133}\mathrm{Cs}$ and $^{85}\mathrm{Rb}\text{\ensuremath{-}}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$, we numerically solve the equations of motion and analyze the system dynamics using a range of measures including energy spectra. In the transient turbulent regime, spectral analysis shows evidence for the characteristic ${k}^{\ensuremath{-}5/3}$ Kolmogorov classical law associated with turbulence, modified by the universal ${k}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ vortex core scaling in the ultraviolet regime.