Static spectroscopy of a dense superfluid

Dense Bose superfluids, as HeII, differ from dilute ones by the existence of a roton minimum in their excitation spectrum. It is known that this roton minimum is qualitatively responsible for density oscillations close to any singularity, such as vortex cores, or close to solid boundaries. We show that the period of these oscillations, and their exponential decrease with the distance to the singularity, are fully determined by the position and the width of the roton minimum. Only an overall amplitude factor and a phase shift are shown to depend on the details of the interaction potential. Reciprocally, it allows for determining the characteristics of this roton minimum from static "observations" of a disturbed ground state, in cases where the dynamics is not easily accessible. We focus on the vortex example. Our analysis further shows why the energy of these oscillations is negligible compared to the kinetic energy, which limits their influence on the vortex dynamics, except for high curvatures.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, extended version, published in J. Low Temp. Phy

Vortex dynamics in trapped Bose-Einstein condensate

We perform numerical simulations of vortex motion in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate by solving the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii Equation in the presence of a simple phenomenological model of interaction between the condensate and the finite temperature thermal cloud. At zero temperature, the trajectories of a single, off - centred vortex precessing in the condensate, and of a vortex - antivortex pair orbiting within the trap, excite acoustic emission. At finite temperatures the vortices move to the edge of the condensate and vanish. By fitting the finite -temperature trajectories, we relate the phenomenological damping parameter to the friction coefficients $\alpha$ and $\alpha^{'}$, which are used to describe the interaction between quantised vortices and the normal fluid in superfluid helium.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, published in JLT

Thermodynamics of an interacting trapped Bose-Einstein gas in the classical field approximation

We present a convenient technique describing the condensate in dynamical equilibrium with the thermal cloud, at temperatures close to the critical one. We show that the whole isolated system may be viewed as a single classical field undergoing nonlinear dynamics leading to a steady state. In our procedure it is the observation process and the finite detection time that allow for splitting the system into the condensate and the thermal cloud.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, final versio

Energetics and Possible Formation and Decay Mechanisms of Vortices in Helium Nanodroplets

The energy and angular momentum of both straight and curved vortex states of a helium nanodroplet are examined as a function of droplet size. For droplets in the size range of many experiments, it is found that during the pickup of heavy solutes, a significant fraction of events deposit sufficient energy and angular momentum to form a straight vortex line. Curved vortex lines exist down to nearly zero angular momentum and energy, and thus could in principle form in almost any collision. Further, the coalescence of smaller droplets during the cooling by expansion could also deposit sufficient angular momentum to form vortex lines. Despite their high energy, most vortices are predicted to be stable at the final temperature (0.38 K) of helium nanodroplets due to lack of decay channels that conserve both energy and angular momentum.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, RevTex 4, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Solitary and periodic solutions of the generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation

The generalized Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation in the case of the power nonlinearity with arbitrary degree is considered. New exact solutions of this equation are presented

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

Particles-vortex interactions and flow visualization in He4

Recent experiments have demonstrated a remarkable progress in implementing and use of the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and particle tracking techniques for the study of turbulence in He4. However, an interpretation of the experimental data in the superfluid phase requires understanding how the motion of tracer particles is affected by the two components, the viscous normal fluid and the inviscid superfluid. Of a particular importance is the problem of particle interactions with quantized vortex lines which may not only strongly affect the particle motion, but, under certain conditions, may even trap particles on quantized vortex cores. The article reviews recent theoretical, numerical, and experimental results in this rapidly developing area of research, putting critically together recent results, and solving apparent inconsistencies. Also discussed is a closely related technique of detection of quantized vortices negative ion bubbles in He4.Comment: To appear in the J Low Temperature Physic

Freely decaying turbulence and Bose-Einstein condensation in Gross-Pitaevski model

We study turbulence and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) within the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevski (GP) model. In the present work, we compute decaying GP turbulence in order to establish whether BEC can occur without forcing and if there is an intensity threshold for this process. We use the wavenumber-frequency plots which allow us to clearly separate the condensate and the wave components and, therefore, to conclude if BEC is present. We observe that BEC in such a system happens even for very weakly nonlinear initial conditions without any visible threshold. BEC arises via a growing phase coherence due to anihilation of phase defects/vortices. We study this process by tracking of propagating vortex pairs. The pairs loose momentum by scattering the background sound, which results in gradual decrease of the distance between the vortices. Occasionally, vortex pairs collide with a third vortex thereby emitting sound, which can lead to more sudden shrinking of the pairs. After the vortex anihilation the pulse propagates further as a dark soliton, and it eventually bursts creating a shock