Transition to the giant vortex state in a harmonic-plus-quartic trap

Journal Article · Sun Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.73.0· OSTI ID:20786756

Fu, H; Zaremba, E ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 (Canada)

We consider a rapidly rotating Bose-condensed gas in a harmonic-plus-quartic trap. At sufficiently high rotation rates, the condensate acquires an annular geometry with the superposition of a vortex lattice. With increasing rotation rate, the lattice evolves into a single ring of vortices. Of interest is the transition from this state to the giant vortex state in which the circulation is carried by only a central vortex. By analyzing the Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional variationally, we have been able to map out the phase boundary between these two states as a function of the rotation rate and the various trapped gas parameters. For strong interactions, the transition is first order. Our variational results are in good qualitative agreement with those obtained by means of a direct numerical solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.

• OSTI ID: 20786756
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 73; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
GEOMETRY
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
ROTATION
TRAPPING
TRAPS
VARIATIONAL METHODS
VORTICES
WAVE EQUATIONS