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arXiv:cond-mat/0101292 · Physical Review Letters

Dynamic Instability of a Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensate

Subhasis Sinha, Yvan Castin

Published Oct 17, 2001• 218 citations
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Abstract

We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a rotating harmonic potential, in connection with recent experiments leading to the formation of vortices. We use the classical hydrodynamic approximation to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation to determine almost analytically the evolution of the condensate. We predict that this evolution can exhibit dynamical instabilities, for the stirring procedure previously demonstrated at ENS and for a new stirring procedure that we put forward. These instabilities take place within the range of stirring frequency and amplitude for which vortices are produced experimentally. They provide therefore an initiating mechanism for vortex nucleation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.87.190402

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We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a rotating harmonic potential, in connection with recent experiments leading to the formation of vortices. We use the classical hydrodynamic approximation to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation to determine almost analytically the evolution of the condensate. We predict that this evolution can exhibit dynamical instabilities, for the stirring procedure previously demonstrated at ENS and for a new stirring procedure that we put forward. These instabilities take place within the range of stirring frequency and amplitude for which vortices are produced experimentally. They provide therefore an initiating mechanism for vortex nucleation.
Using a focused laser beam we stir a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a magnetic trap. We observe that the steady states of the condensate correspond to an elliptic cloud, stationary in the rotating frame. These steady states depend nonlinearly on the stirring parameters (amplitude and frequency), and various solutions can be reached experimentally depending on the path followed in this parameter space. These states can be dynamically unstable and we observe that such instabilities lead to vortex nucleation in the condensate.
Vortex nucleation in a Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a stirring potential is studied numerically using the zero-temperature, two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation. In the case of a rotating, slightly anisotropic harmonic potential, the numerical results reproduce experimental findings, thereby showing that finite temperatures are not necessary for vortex excitation below the quadrupole frequency. In the case of a condensate subject to stirring by a narrow rotating potential, the process of vortex excitation is described by a classical model that treats the multitude of vortices created by the stirrer as a continuously distributed vorticity at the center of the cloud, but retains a potential flow pattern at large distances from the center.
We present a quantum-mechanical treatment of the mechanical stirring of Bose-Einstein condensates using classical field techniques. In our approach the condensate and excited modes are described using a Hamiltonian classical field method in which the atom number and (rotating frame) energy are strictly conserved. We simulate a T=0T=0T=0 quasi-two-dimensional condensate perturbed by a rotating anisotropic trapping potential. Vacuum fluctuations in the initial state provide an irreducible mechanism for breaking the initial symmetries of the condensate and seeding the subsequent dynamical instability. Highly turbulent motion develops and we quantify the emergence of a rotating thermal component that provides the dissipation necessary for the nucleation and motional damping of vortices in the condensate. Vortex lattice formation is not observed, rather the vortices assemble into a spatially disordered vortex liquid state. We discuss methods we have developed to identify the condensate in the presence of an irregular distribution of vortices, determine the thermodynamic parameters of the thermal component, and extract damping rates from the classical field trajectories.
We show that the formation of a vortex lattice in a weakly interacting Bose condensed gas can be modeled with the nonlinear Schrödinger equation for both T=0 and finite temperatures without the need for an explicit damping term. Applying a weak rotating anisotropic harmonic potential, we find numerically that the turbulent dynamics of the field produces an effective dissipation of the vortex motion and leads to the formation of a lattice. For T=0, this turbulent dynamics is triggered by a rotational dynamic instability of the condensate. For finite temperatures, noise is present at the start of the simulation and allows the formation of a vortex lattice at a lower rotation frequency, the Landau frequency. These two regimes have different vortex dynamics. We show that the multimode interpretation of the classical field is essential.
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.