Rotating trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

AbstractTrapped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) differ considerably from the standard textbook example of a uniform Bose gas. In an isotropic harmonic potential V(r) = ½Mω2r2, the single-particle ground state introduces a new intrinsic scale of length [the ground-state size d = √ℏ/(Mω)] and energy [the ground-state energy E0 = $$ \frac{3} {2} $$ℏω]. When the trap rotates at a low angular velocity, the behavior of a single vortex illustrates the crucial role of discrete quantized vorticity. For more rapid rotation, the condensate contains a vortex array. The resulting centrifugal forces expand the condensate radially and shrink it axially; thus, the condensate becomes effectively two dimensional. If the external rotation speed approaches the frequency of the radial harmonic confining potential, the condensate enters the “lowest-Landau-level” regime, and a simple description again becomes possible. Eventually, the system is predicted to make a quantum phase transition to a highly correlated state analogous to the fractional quantum Hall states of electrons in a strong magnetic field.