Topological Vortex Formation in BEC under Gravitational Field

Topological phase imprinting is a unique technique for vortex formation in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of alkali metal gas, in that it does not involve rotation: BEC is trapped in a quadrupole field with a uniform bias field which is reversed adiabatically leading to vortex formation at the center of the magnetic trap. The scenario has been experimentally verified by MIT group employing $^{23}$Na atoms. Recently similar experiments have been conducted at Kyoto University, in which BEC of $^{87}$Rb atoms has been used. In the latter experiments they found that the fine-tuning of the field reverse time $T_{\rm rev}$ is required to achieve stable vortex formation. Otherwise, they often observed vortex fragmentations or a condensate without a vortex. It is shown in this paper that this behavior is attributed to the heavy mass of the Rb atom. The confining potential, which depends on the eigenvalue $m_B$ of the hyperfine spin \bv{F} along the magnetic field, is now shifted by the gravitational field perpendicular to the vortex line. Then the positions of two weak-field-seeking states with $m_B=1$ and 2 deviate from each other. This effect is more prominent for BEC with a heavy atomic mass, for which the deviation is greater and, moreover, the Thomas-Fermi radius is smaller. We found, by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation numerically, that two condensates interact in a very complicated way leading to fragmentation of vortices, unless $T_{\rm rev}$ is properly tuned.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures submitted to PR

Orbital symmetry of a triplet pairing in a heavy Fermion superconductor UPt_3

The orbital symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in UPt_3 is identified by evaluating the directionally dependent thermalconductivity and ultrasound attenuation in the clean limit and compared with the existing data for both basal plane and the c-axis of a hexagonal crystal. The resulting two component orbital part expressed by (\lambda_x(k), \lambda_y(k)) is combined with the previously determined triplet spin part, leading to clean limit and compared with the existing data for both basal plane and the c-axis of a hexagonal crystal. The resulting two component orbital part expressed by (\lambda_x(k), \lambda_y(k)) is combined with the previously determined triplet spin part, leading to the order parameter of either the non-unitary bipolar state of the form: d(k) = b \lambda_x(k) + i j \lambda_y(k) or the unitary planar state of the form: d(k) = b \lambda_x(k) + j \lambda_y(k) where b \perp j = c, or a with the hexagonal unit vectors a, b and c. The d vector is rotatable in the plane spanned by a and c perpendicular to b under weak applied c-axis field because of the weak spin orbit coupling. Experiments are proposed to distinguish between the equally possible these states.Comment: 8 pages, 8 eps figure

A simple method to create a vortex in Bose-Einstein condensate of alkali atoms

Bose-Einstein condensation in alkali atoms has materialized quite an interesting system, namely a condensate with a spin degree of freedom. In analogy with the A-phase of the superfluid $^3$He, numerous textures with nonvanishing vorticity have been proposed. In the present paper, interesting properties of such spin textures are analyzed. We propose a remarkably simple method to create a vortex state of a BEC in alkali atoms.Comment: 2 pages, 1 eps figure. Proceedings of LT22. The title is changed from the submitted version: Vortices in Bose-Einstein condensate with spin degree of freedo