Critical Superfluid Velocity in a Trapped Dipolar Gas

Journal Article · Fri Mar 05 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.104.094501· OSTI ID:21386830

Wilson, Ryan M; Ronen, Shai; Bohn, John L ^[1]

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1. JILA and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440 (United States)

We investigate the superfluid properties of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a fully three-dimensional trap. Specifically, we estimate a superfluid critical velocity for this system by applying the Landau criterion to its discrete quasiparticle spectrum. We test this critical velocity by direct numerical simulation of condensate depletion as a blue-detuned laser moves through the condensate. In both cases, the presence of the roton in the spectrum serves to lower the critical velocity beyond a critical particle number. Since the shape of the dispersion, and hence the roton minimum, is tunable as a function of particle number, we thereby propose an experiment that can simultaneously measure the Landau critical velocity of a dipolar BEC and demonstrate the presence of the roton in this system.

• OSTI ID: 21386830
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 104; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CRITICAL VELOCITY
DISPERSIONS
LASERS
PARTICLES
QUASI PARTICLES
SIMULATION
SPECTRA
SUPERFLUIDITY
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TRAPPING
TRAPS
VELOCITY