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arXiv:cond-mat/9803181 · Physical Review A

Normal modes of a vortex in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate

Anatoly A. Svidzinsky, Alexander L. Fetter

Published Oct 1, 1998• 97 citations
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Abstract

A hydrodynamic description is used to study the normal modes of a vortex in a zero-temperature Bose-Einstein condensate. In the Thomas-Fermi limit, the circulating superfluid velocity far from the vortex core provides a small perturbation that splits the originally degenerate normal modes of a vortex-free condensate. The relative frequency shifts are small in all cases considered (they vanish for the lowest dipole mode with $|m|=1$), suggesting that the vortex is stable. The Bogoliubov equations serve to verify the existence of helical waves, similar to those of a vortex line in an unbounded weakly interacting Bose gas. In the large-condensate (small-core) limit, the condensate wave function reduces to that of a straight vortex in an unbounded condensate; the corresponding Bogoliubov equations have no bound-state solutions that are uniform along the symmetry axis and that decay exponentially far from the vortex core.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.58.3168

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A hydrodynamic description is used to study the normal modes of a vortex in a zero-temperature Bose-Einstein condensate. In the Thomas-Fermi limit, the circulating superfluid velocity far from the vortex core provides a small perturbation that splits the originally degenerate normal modes of a vortex-free condensate. The relative frequency shifts are small in all cases considered (they vanish for the lowest dipole mode with ∣m∣=1|m|=1∣m∣=1), suggesting that the vortex is stable. The Bogoliubov equations serve to verify the existence of helical waves, similar to those of a vortex line in an unbounded weakly interacting Bose gas. In the large-condensate (small-core) limit, the condensate wave function reduces to that of a straight vortex in an unbounded condensate; the corresponding Bogoliubov equations have no bound-state solutions that are uniform along the symmetry axis and that decay exponentially far from the vortex core.
In a uniform fluid, a quantized vortex line with circulation h∕Mh∕Mh∕M can support long-wavelength helical traveling waves $\ensuremath{\propto}{e}^{i(kz\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{k}t)}$ with the well-known Kelvin dispersion relation ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{k}\ensuremath{\approx}(\ensuremath{\hbar}{k}^{2}∕2M)\mathrm{ln}(1∕\ensuremath{\mid}k\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\xi})$, where $\ensuremath{\xi}$ is the vortex-core radius. This result is extended to include the effect of a nonuniform harmonic trap potential, using a quantum generalization of the Biot-Savart law that determines the local velocity V\mathbf{V}V of each element of the vortex line. The normal-mode eigenfunctions form an orthogonal Sturm-Liouville set. Although the line's curvature dominates the dynamics, the transverse and axial trapping potential also affect the normal modes of a straight vortex on the symmetry axis of an axisymmetric Thomas-Fermi condensate. The leading effect of the nonuniform condensate density is to increase the amplitude along the axis away from the trap center. Near the ends, however, a boundary layer forms to satisfy the natural Sturm-Liouville boundary conditions. For a given applied frequency, the next-order correction renormalizes the local wave number k(z)k(z)k(z) upward near the trap center, and k(z)k(z)k(z) then increases still more toward the ends.
Based on the method of matched asymptotic expansions and on a time-dependent variational analysis, we study the dynamics of a vortex in a three-dimensional disk-shaped nonaxisymmetric condensate in the Thomas-Fermi limit. Both methods show that a vortex in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate has formally unstable normal mode(s) with positive normalization and negative frequency, corresponding to a precession of the vortex line around the center of the trap. In a rotating trap, the solution becomes stable above an angular velocity Omega(m), characterizing the onset of metastability with respect to small transverse displacements of the vortex from the central axis.
We consider a rotating axisymmetric trap containing a small Bose-Einstein condensate with a singly quantized vortex near the axis of symmetry. A time-dependent variational Lagrangian analysis yields the small-amplitude dynamics of the vortex and the condensate, directly determining the equations of motion of the coupled normal modes. As found previously from the Bogoliubov equations, there are two rigid dipole modes and one anomalous mode with a negative frequency when seen in the nonrotating laboratory frame.
We consider a large condensate in a rotating anisotropic harmonic trap. Using the method of matched asymptotic expansions, we derive the velocity of an element of a vortex line as a function of the local gradient of the trap potential, the line curvature, and the angular velocity of the trap rotation. This velocity yields small-amplitude normal modes of the vortex for two-dimensional (2D) and 3D condensates. For an axisymmetric trap, the motion of the vortex line is a superposition of plane-polarized standing-wave modes. In a 2D condensate, the planar normal modes are degenerate, and their superposition can result in helical traveling waves, which differs from a 3D condensate. Including the effects of trap rotation allows us to find the angular velocity that makes the vortex locally stable. For a cigar-shaped condensate, the vortex curvature makes a significant contribution to the frequency of the lowest unstable normal mode; furthermore, additional modes with negative frequencies appear. As a result, it is considerably more difficult to stabilize a central vortex in a cigar-shaped condensate than in a disk-shaped one. Normal modes with imaginary frequencies can occur for a nonaxisymmetric condensate (in both 2D and 3D). In connection with recent JILA experiments, we consider the motion of a straight vortex line in a slightly nonspherical condensate. The vortex line changes its orientation in space at the rate proportional to the degree of trap anisotropy and can exhibit periodic recurrences.
A second-order expansion of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the interaction parameter determines the thermodynamic critical angular velocity ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{c}$ for the creation of a vortex in a small axisymmetric condensate. Similarly, a second-order expansion of the Bogoliubov equations determines the (negative) frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}$ of the anomalous mode. Although ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{c}=\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}$ through first order, the second-order contributions ensure that the absolute value $|{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}|$ is always smaller than the critical angular velocity ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{c}.$ With increasing external rotation $\ensuremath{\Omega},$ the dynamical instability of the condensate with a vortex disappears at ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}^{*}=|{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}|,$ whereas the vortex state becomes energetically stable at the larger value ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{c}.$ Both second-order contributions depend explicitly on the axial anisotropy of the trap. The appearance of a local minimum of the free energy for a vortex at the center determines the metastable angular velocity ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{m}.$ A variational calculation yields ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{m}=|{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}|$ to first order (hence ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{m}$ also coincides with the critical angular velocity ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{c}$ to this order). Qualitatively, the scenario for the onset of stability in the weak-coupling limit is the same as that found in the strong-coupling (Thomas-Fermi) limit.
The low-lying hydrodynamic normal modes of a dilute Bose-Einstein gas in an isotropic harmonic trap determine the corresponding Bogoliubov amplitudes. In the Thomas-Fermi limit, these modes have large low-temperature occupation numbers and they permit an explicit construction of the dynamic structure function $S(\mathbf{q},\ensuremath{\omega})$. The total noncondensate number ${N}^{\ensuremath{'}}(0)$ at zero temperature increases like R6{R}^{6}R6, where RRR is the condensate radius measured in units of the oscillator length. The lowest dipole modes are constructed explicitly in the Bogoliubov approximation.