10,963 research outputs found
Rotation Curves of Spiral Galaxies
Rotation curves of spiral galaxies are the major tool for determining the
distribution of mass in spiral galaxies. They provide fundamental information
for understanding the dynamics, evolution and formation of spiral galaxies. We
describe various methods to derive rotation curves, and review the results
obtained. We discuss the basic characteristics of observed rotation curves in
relation to various galaxy properties, such as Hubble type, structure,
activity, and environment.Comment: 40 pages, 6 gif figures; Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. Vol. 39, p.137,
200
Generating ring currents, solitons, and svortices by stirring a Bose-Einstein condensate in a toroidal trap
We propose a simple stirring experiment to generate quantized ring currents
and solitary excitations in Bose-Einstein condensates in a toroidal trap
geometry. Simulations of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation show that pure ring
current states can be generated efficiently by adiabatic manipulation of the
condensate, which can be realized on experimental time scales. This is
illustrated by simulated generation of a ring current with winding number two.
While solitons can be generated in quasi-1D tori, we show the even more robust
generation of hybrid, solitonic vortices (svortices) in a regime of wider
confinement. Svortices are vortices confined to essentially one-dimensional
dynamics, which obey a similar phase-offset--velocity relationship as solitons.
Marking the transition between solitons and vortices, svortices are a distinct
class of symmetry-breaking stationary and uniformly rotating excited solutions
of the 2D and 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a toroidal trapping potential.
Svortices should be observable in dilute-gas experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in J. Phys. B (Letters
Experimental demonstration of painting arbitrary and dynamic potentials for Bose-Einstein condensates
There is a pressing need for robust and straightforward methods to create
potentials for trapping Bose-Einstein condensates which are simultaneously
dynamic, fully arbitrary, and sufficiently stable to not heat the ultracold
gas. We show here how to accomplish these goals, using a rapidly-moving laser
beam that "paints" a time-averaged optical dipole potential in which we create
BECs in a variety of geometries, including toroids, ring lattices, and square
lattices. Matter wave interference patterns confirm that the trapped gas is a
condensate. As a simple illustration of dynamics, we show that the technique
can transform a toroidal condensate into a ring lattice and back into a toroid.
The technique is general and should work with any sufficiently polarizable
low-energy particles.Comment: Minor text changes and three references added. This is the final
version published in New Journal of Physic
Grey solitons in a strongly interacting superfluid Fermi Gas
The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein condensate (BCS to BEC)
crossover problem is solved for stationary grey solitons via the Boguliubov-de
Gennes equations at zero temperature. These \emph{crossover solitons} exhibit a
localized notch in the gap and a characteristic phase difference across the
notch for all interaction strengths, from BEC to BCS regimes. However, they do
not follow the well-known Josephson-like sinusoidal relationship between
velocity and phase difference except in the far BEC limit: at unitary the
velocity has a nearly linear dependence on phase difference over an extended
range. For fixed phase difference the soliton is of nearly constant depth from
the BEC limit to unitarity and then grows progressively shallower into the BCS
limit, and on the BCS side Friedel oscillations are apparent in both gap
amplitude and phase. The crossover soliton appears fundamentally in the gap; we
show, however, that the density closely follows the gap, and the soliton is
therefore observable. We develop an approximate power law relationship to
express this fact: the density of grey crossover solitons varies as the square
of the gap amplitude in the BEC limit and a power of about 1.5 at unitarity.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, part of New Journal of Physics focus issue
"Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: From Ultracold Quantum Gases to QCD
Plasmas," in pres
Nonlinear Waves in Bose-Einstein Condensates: Physical Relevance and Mathematical Techniques
The aim of the present review is to introduce the reader to some of the
physical notions and of the mathematical methods that are relevant to the study
of nonlinear waves in Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs). Upon introducing the
general framework, we discuss the prototypical models that are relevant to this
setting for different dimensions and different potentials confining the atoms.
We analyze some of the model properties and explore their typical wave
solutions (plane wave solutions, bright, dark, gap solitons, as well as
vortices). We then offer a collection of mathematical methods that can be used
to understand the existence, stability and dynamics of nonlinear waves in such
BECs, either directly or starting from different types of limits (e.g., the
linear or the nonlinear limit, or the discrete limit of the corresponding
equation). Finally, we consider some special topics involving more recent
developments, and experimental setups in which there is still considerable need
for developing mathematical as well as computational tools.Comment: 69 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Nonlinearity, 2008. V2: new
references added, fixed typo
A Levinson theorem for scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate
A relation between the number of bound collective excitations of an atomic
Bose-Einstein condensate and the phase shift of elastically scattered atoms is
derived. Within the Bogoliubov model of a weakly interacting Bose gas this
relation is exact and generalises Levinson's theorem. Specific features of the
Bogoliubov model such as complex-energy and continuum bound states are
discussed and a numerical example is given.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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