12 research outputs found
Generation of vortices and observation of Quantum Turbulence in an oscillating Bose-Einstein Condensate
We report on the experimental observation of vortex formation and production
of tangled vortex distribution in an atomic BEC of Rb-87 atoms submitted to an
external oscillatory perturbation. The oscillatory perturbations start by
exciting quadrupolar and scissors modes of the condensate. Then regular
vortices are observed finally evolving to a vortex tangle configuration. The
vortex tangle is a signature of the presence of a turbulent regime in the
cloud. We also show that this turbulent cloud has suppression of the aspect
ratio inversion typically observed in quantum degenerate bosonic gases during
free expansion.Comment: to appear in JLTP - QFS 200
Creating a self-induced dark spontaneous-force optical trap for neutral atoms
This communication describes the observation of a new type of dark
spontaneous-force optical trap (dark SPOT) obtained without the use of a mask
blocking the central part of the repumper laser beam. We observe that loading a
magneto-optical trap (MOT) from a continuous and intense flux of slowed atoms
and by appropriately tuning the frequency of the repumper laser is possible to
achieve basically the same effect of the dark SPOT, using a simpler apparatus.
This work characterizes the new system through measurements of absorption and
fluorescence imaging of the atomic cloud and presents a very simple model to
explain the main features of our observations. We believe that this new
approach may simplify the current experiments to produce quantum degenerated
gases.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to Optics Communications (30/10/2003),
accepted for publication (Feb/2004
Self-similar expansion of the density profile in a turbulent Bose-Einstein condensate
In a recent study we demonstrated the emergence of turbulence in a trapped
Bose-Einstein condensate of Rb-87 atoms. An intriguing observation in such a
system is the behavior of the turbulent cloud during free expansion.The aspect
ratio of the cloud size does not change in the way one would expect for an
ordinary non-rotating (vortex-free) condensate. Here we show that the anomalous
expansion can be understood, at least qualitatively, in terms of the presence
of vorticity distributed throughout the cloud, effectively counteracting the
usual reversal of the aspect ratio seen in free time-of-flight expansion of
non-rotating condensates.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Vortices and dynamics in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates
I review the basic physics of ultracold dilute trapped atomic gases, with
emphasis on Bose-Einstein condensation and quantized vortices. The hydrodynamic
form of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (a nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger equation)
illuminates the role of the density and the quantum-mechanical phase. One
unique feature of these experimental systems is the opportunity to study the
dynamics of vortices in real time, in contrast to typical experiments on
superfluid He. I discuss three specific examples (precession of single
vortices, motion of vortex dipoles, and Tkachenko oscillations of a vortex
array). Other unusual features include the study of quantum turbulence and the
behavior for rapid rotation, when the vortices form dense regular arrays.
Ultimately, the system is predicted to make a quantum phase transition to
various highly correlated many-body states (analogous to bosonic quantum Hall
states) that are not superfluid and do not have condensate wave functions. At
present, this transition remains elusive. Conceivably, laser-induced synthetic
vector potentials can serve to reach this intriguing phase transition.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Low Temperature Physics,
conference proceedings: Symposia on Superfluids under Rotation (Lammi,
Finland, April 2010
From Coherent Modes to Turbulence and Granulation of Trapped Gases
The process of exciting the gas of trapped bosons from an equilibrium initial
state to strongly nonequilibrium states is described as a procedure of symmetry
restoration caused by external perturbations. Initially, the trapped gas is
cooled down to such low temperatures, when practically all atoms are in
Bose-Einstein condensed state, which implies the broken global gauge symmetry.
Excitations are realized either by imposing external alternating fields,
modulating the trapping potential and shaking the cloud of trapped atoms, or it
can be done by varying atomic interactions by means of Feshbach resonance
techniques. Gradually increasing the amount of energy pumped into the system,
which is realized either by strengthening the modulation amplitude or by
increasing the excitation time, produces a series of nonequilibrium states,
with the growing fraction of atoms for which the gauge symmetry is restored. In
this way, the initial equilibrium system, with the broken gauge symmetry and
all atoms condensed, can be excited to the state, where all atoms are in the
normal state, with completely restored gauge symmetry. In this process, the
system, starting from the regular superfluid state, passes through the states
of vortex superfluid, turbulent superfluid, heterophase granular fluid, to the
state of normal chaotic fluid in turbulent regime. Both theoretical and
experimental studies are presented.Comment: Latex file, 25 pages, 4 figure
Tree method for quantum vortex dynamics
We present a numerical method to compute the evolution of vortex filaments in
superfluid helium. The method is based on a tree algorithm which considerably
speeds up the calculation of Biot-Savart integrals. We show that the
computational cost scales as Nlog{(N) rather than N squared, where is the
number of discretization points. We test the method and its properties for a
variety of vortex configurations, ranging from simple vortex rings to a
counterflow vortex tangle, and compare results against the Local Induction
Approximation and the exact Biot-Savart law.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure