Dislocation-Mediated Melting in Superfluid Vortex Lattices

We describe thermal melting of the two-dimensional vortex lattice in a rotating superfluid by generalizing the Halperin and Nelson theory of dislocation-mediated melting. and derive a melting temperature proportional to the renormalized shear modulus of the vortex lattice. The rigid-body rotation of the superfluid attenuates the effects of lattice compression on the energy of dislocations and hence the melting temperature, while not affecting the shearing. Finally, we discuss dislocations and thermal melting in inhomogeneous rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates; we delineate a phase diagram in the temperature -- rotation rate plane, and infer that the thermal melting temperature should lie below the Bose-Einstein transition temperature.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Pinning and collective modes of a vortex lattice in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We consider the ground state of vortices in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate that is loaded in a corotating two-dimensional optical lattice. Due to the competition between vortex interactions and their potential energy, the vortices arrange themselves in various patterns, depending on the strength of the optical potential and the vortex density. We outline a method to determine the phase diagram for arbitrary vortex filling factor. Using this method, we discuss several filling factors explicitly. For increasing strength of the optical lattice, the system exhibits a transition from the unpinned hexagonal lattice to a lattice structure where all the vortices are pinned by the optical lattice. The geometry of this fully pinned vortex lattice depends on the filling factor and is either square or triangular. For some filling factors there is an intermediate half-pinned phase where only half of the vortices is pinned. We also consider the case of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate, where the possible coexistence of the above-mentioned phases further enriches the phase diagram. In addition, we calculate the dispersion of the low-lying collective modes of the vortex lattice and find that, depending on the structure of the ground state, they can be gapped or gapless. Moreover, in the half-pinned and fully pinned phases, the collective mode dispersion is anisotropic. Possible experiments to probe the collective mode spectrum, and in particular the gap, are suggested.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures, changes in section

Vortex states of rapidly rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensates

We show that, in the Thomas-Fermi regime, the cores of vortices in rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensates adjust in radius as the rotation velocity, $\Omega$, grows, thus precluding a phase transition associated with core overlap at high vortex density. In both a harmonic trap and a rotating hard-walled bucket, the core size approaches a limiting fraction of the intervortex spacing. At large rotation speeds, a system confined in a bucket develops, within Thomas-Fermi, a hole along the rotation axis, and eventually makes a transition to a giant vortex state with all the vorticity contained in the hole.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTex4. Version as published; discussion extended, some references added and update