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arXiv:cond-mat/0211401 · Physical Review A

Vortex nucleation in Bose-Einstein condensates in time-dependent traps

Emil Lundh, J.-P. Martikainen, Kalle‐Antti Suominen

Published Jun 18, 2003• 36 citations
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Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.67.063604

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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.
The nucleation of vortices and the resulting structures of vortex arrays in dilute, trapped, zero-temperature Bose-Einstein condensates are investigated numerically. Vortices are generated by rotating a three-dimensional, anisotropic harmonic atom trap. The condensate ground state is obtained by propagating the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in imaginary time. Vortices first appear at a rotation frequency significantly larger than the critical frequency for vortex stabilization, consistent with a critical velocity mechanism for vortex nucleation. At higher frequencies, the structures of the vortex arrays are strongly influenced by trap geometry.
Vortex states of weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensates confined in three-dimensional rotating harmonic traps are investigated numerically at zero temperature. The ground state in the rotating frame is obtained by propagating the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the condensate in imaginary time. The total energies between states with and without a vortex are compared, yielding critical rotation frequencies that depend on the anisotropy of the trap and the number of atoms. Vortices displaced from the center of nonrotating traps are found to have long lifetimes for sufficiently large numbers of atoms. The relationship between vortex stability and bound core states is explored.
We study the response of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate to a sudden turn on of a rotating drive by numerically solving the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation. A weakly anisotropic rotating potential excites a quadrupole shape oscillation and its time evolution is analyzed by a quasiparticle projection method. In a quadrupolar resonant regime, which depends on the trap anisotropy, simple periodic oscillations in surface-mode populations disappear and the system exhibits stochastic dynamics. In the presence of the phenomenological dissipation, an initially irrotational condensate is found to undergo damped elliptic deformation followed by unstable surface ripple excitations, some of which develop into quantized vortices that eventually form a lattice. Recent experimental results on the vortex nucleation should be explained not only by the dynamical instability but also by the Landau instability; the latter is necessary for the vortices to penetrate into the condensate.
We studied the nucleation of vortices in a Bose-Einstein condensate stirred by a laser beam. The vortex cores were observed using time-of-flight absorption imaging. Depending on the stirrer size, either discrete resonances or a broad response was visible as the stir frequency was varied. Stirring beams small compared to the condensate size generated vortices below the critical rotation frequency for the nucleation of surface modes, suggesting a local mechanism of generation. In addition, we observed the centrifugal distortion of the condensate due to the rotating vortex lattice and found evidence for bent vortices.
The properties of vortex states in a Bose-Einstein-condensed cloud of atoms are considered at zero temperature. Using both analytical and numerical methods, we solve the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the case when a cloud of atoms containing a vortex is released from a trap. In two dimensions we find the simple result that the time dependence of the cloud radius is given by $(1+{\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2}{t}^{2}{)}^{1/2},$ where $\ensuremath{\omega}$ is the trap frequency. We calculate and compare the expansion of the vortex core and the cloud radius for different numbers of particles and interaction strengths, in both two and three dimensions, and discuss the circumstances under which vortex states may be observed experimentally.
The expansion of Bose-Einstein condensates with quantized vortices is studied by solving numerically the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation at zero temperature. For a condensate initially trapped in a spherical harmonic potential, we confirm previous results obtained by means of variational methods showing that, after releasing the trap, the vortex core expands faster than the radius of the atomic cloud. This could make the detection of vortices feasible, by observing the depletion of the density along the axis of rotation. We find that this effect is significantly enhanced in the case of anisotropic disk-shaped traps. The results obtained as a function of the anisotropy of the initial configuration are compared with the analytic solution for a noninteracting gas in three dimensions as well as with the scaling law predicted for an interacting gas in two dimensions.