Center-of-mass rotation and vortices in an attractive Bose gas

• The rotational properties of an attractively interacting Bose gas are studied using analytical and numerical methods. We study perturbatively the ground-state phase space for weak interactions, and find that in an anharmonic trap the rotational ground states are vortex or center-of-mass rotational states; the crossover line separating these two phases is calculated. We further show that the Gross-Pitaevskii equation is a valid description of such a gas in the rotating frame and calculate numerically the phase-space structure using this equation. It is found that the transition between vortex and center-of-mass rotation is gradual; furthermore, the perturbative approach is valid only in an exceedingly small portion of phase space. We also present an intuitive picture of the physics involved in terms of correlated successive measurements for the center-of-mass state.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Atom- och molekylfysik och optik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Optical physics

Optisk fysik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)