Stationary vortex clusters in nonrotating Bose-Einstein condensates

Journal Article · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.033626· OSTI ID:20650477

Moettoenen, M; Virtanen, S M.M.; Salomaa, M M ^[1]; Isoshima, T ^[2]

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1. Materials Physics Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 2200 (Technical Physics), FIN-02015 HUT (Finland)
2. Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan (China)

We investigate the recently found stationary vortex cluster states in dilute atomic Bose-Einstein condensates confined by a nonrotating trap, and also present a stationary three-vortex cluster. We find the stationary states by minimizing directly an error norm for the stationary Gross-Pitaevskii equation, and study the dynamic and energetic stability of the resulting states by solving the corresponding Bogoliubov equations for the elementary excitations. The results are verified by integrating the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Contrary to previously reported results, the stationary states were observed to be both energetically and dynamically unstable. The dynamical decay rate of the clusters is typically very slow, but it should be experimentally observable. The most promising circumstances to experimentally generate and observe these structures and their dynamics is in weakly dissipative condensate systems, using phase-imprinting techniques.

• OSTI ID: 20650477
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 71; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
DECAY
ERRORS
EXCITATION
RADIATION PRESSURE
STABILITY
TIME DEPENDENCE
TRAPS
VORTICES
WAVE EQUATIONS