2000/05/12 by F. Chevy, Frédéric Chevy, K. Madison +4 · 9 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.2223
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.85:2223-2227,2000 · 4 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2000/05/12 · openalex publication_date 2002/01/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/28
We study the quadrupole oscillation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms confined in an axisymmetric magnetic trap, after it has been stirred by an auxiliary laser beam. The stirring may lead to the nucleation of one or more vortices, whose presence is revealed unambiguously by the precession of the axes of the quadrupolar mode. For a stirring frequency Omega below the single vortex nucleation threshold Omega(c), no measurable precession occurs. Just above Omega(c), the angular momentum deduced from the precession is approximately Planck's over 2pi. For stirring frequencies above Omega(c) the angular momentum is a smooth and increasing function of Omega, until an angular frequency is reached at which the vortex lattice disappears.