Nucleation, Growth, and Stabilization of Bose-Einstein Condensate Vortex Lattices
Abstract
We give a simple unified theory of vortex nucleation and vortex lattice formation in which (i) the thermal cloud plays a crucial role; (ii) the basic process is due to growth of the condensate from a rotating thermal cloud, which provides gain for certain surface modes of nonzero angular momentum; (iii) vortices appear initially as the result of a linear interference between the far fields of the condensate and the surface modes; and (iv) the description applies from the initiation process up to the final stabilization of the lattice. We have simulated the growth of vortex lattices from a rotating thermal cloud, and their production using a rotating trap.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- December 2002
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.260402
- arXiv:
- arXiv:cond-mat/0205037
- Bibcode:
- 2002PhRvL..89z0402P
- Keywords:
-
- 03.75.Fi;
- Condensed Matter
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 4 figures, for associated mpeg files, see http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/bec/theory.htm