Driving quantized vortices with quantum vacuum fluctuations
François Impens, Ana M. Contreras-Reyes, Paulo A. Maia Neto, Diego A. R. Dalvit, Romain Guérout, Astrid Lambrecht, Serge Reynaud
备注：
5 pages, 2 figures. Comparison with the results given by the pairwise summation approach added in the second figure. Accepted for publication in the Euro Physics Letters
We propose to use a rotating corrugated material plate in order to stir, through the Casimir-Polder interaction, quantized vortices in an harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate. The emergence of such vortices within the condensate cannot be explained with a computation of the Casimir-Polder potential based on the pairwise summation approach or on the proximity force approximation. It thus appears as a genuine signature of non-trivial geometry effects on the electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations, which fully exploits the superfluid nature of the sample. In order to discuss quantitatively the generation of Casimir-driven vortices, we derive an exact non-perturbative theory of the Casimir-Polder potential felt by the atoms in front of the grating. Our numerical results for a Rb condensate close to a Si grating show that the resulting quantum vacuum torque is strong enough to provide a contactless transfer of angular momentum to the condensate and generate quantized vortices under realistic experimental conditions at separation distances around $3$ microns.
We study inelastic interactions of particles with quantized vortices in superfluids by using a semi-classical matter wave theory that is analogous to the Landau two-fluid equations, but allows for the vortex dynamics. The research is motivated by recent experiments on xenon doped helium nanodroplets that show clustering of the impurities along the vortex cores. We numerically simulate the dynamics of trapping and interactions of xenon atoms by quantized vortices in superfluid helium and the obtained results can be extended to scattering of other impurities by quantized vortices. Different ener…
This article reviews recent developments in the physics of quantized vortices in superfluid helium and atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Quantized vortices appear in low-temperature quantum condensed systems as the direct product of Bose-Einstein condensation. Quantized vortices were first discovered in superfluid 4He in the 1950s, and have since been studied with a primary focus on the quantum hydrodynamics of this system. Since the discovery of superfluid 3He in 1972, quantized vortices characteristic of the anisotropic superfluid have been studied theoretically and observed experimentally u…
The dynamics of quantized vortices in two-dimensional two-component miscible Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) trapped by a box potential has been numerically studied using the Gross{ Pitaevskii model. We have discovered a novel phenomenon where the vortices of the two components spatially separate from each other, which we call the phase separation of the distribution of vortices. This phase separation occurs when the inter-component coupling is strong. Onsager vortices, on the other hand, are formed in both components when the inter-component coupling is weak. We distinguish between Onsager v…
We review recent important topics in quantized vortices and quantum turbulence in atomic Bose--Einstein condensates (BECs). They have previously been studied for a long time in superfluid helium. Quantum turbulence is currently one of the most important topics in low-temperature physics. Atomic BECs have two distinct advantages over liquid helium for investigating such topics: quantized vortices can be directly visualized and the interaction parameters can be controlled by the Feshbach resonance. A general introduction is followed by a description of the dynamics of quantized vortices, hydrody…
We present theoretical analysis and numerical studies of the quantized vortices in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate with spatiotemporally modulated interaction in harmonic and anharmonic potentials, respectively. The exact quantized vortex and giant vortex solutions are constructed explicitly by similarity transformation. Their stability behavior has been examined by numerical simulation, which shows that a new series of stable vortex states (defined by radial and angular quantum numbers) can be supported by the spatiotemporally modulated interaction in this system. We find that there exist…
We experimentally and theoretically explore the creation and time evolution of vortex lines in the polar magnetic phase of a trapped spin-1 $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. A process of phase-imprinting a nonsingular vortex, its decay into a pair of singular spinor vortices, and a rapid exchange of magnetic phases creates a pair of three-dimensional, singular singly-quantized vortex lines with core regions that are filled with atoms in the ferromagnetic phase. Atomic interactions guide the subsequent vortex dynamics, leading to core structures that suggest the decay of the singly-quantized …
Steady states reached in a coherently pumped exciton-polariton superfluid are investigated. As the pump parameter is changed, the translational symmetry of the uniform system is spontaneously broken, and various steady patterns of quantized vortices are formed. This is peculiar to nonequilibrium dissipative systems with continuous pumping.
In resonantly pumped polariton superfluids we recently explored a new regime based on the bistability of the polariton system to enhance the propagation of polariton fluids up to macroscopic distances. This technique together with an all-optical imprinting method allowed the generation and control of various topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons. The flexibility and scalability of the new experimental scheme opens the way to the systematic study of quantum turbulence in driven dissipative quantum fluids of light. In this article we review the basic working princi…
We study the Kelvin mode excitations on a vortex line in a three-dimensional trapped Bose-Einstein condensate at finite temperature. Our stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii simulations show that the activation of these modes can be suppressed by tightening the confinement along the direction of the vortex line, leading to a strong suppression in the vortex decay rate as the system enters a regime of two-dimensional vortex dynamics. As the system approaches the condensation transition temperature we find that the vortex decay rate is strongly sensitive to dimensionality and temperature, observing a lar…
The dynamics of quantized vortices in weakly interacting superfluids are often modeled by a nonlinear Schrödinger equation. In contrast, we show that quantized vortices in fact obey a non-Hamiltonian evolution equation, which enhances dispersion along the vortex line while introducing a gain mechanism. This allows the vortex medium to support a helical shock front propagating ahead of a dissipative soliton. This dynamic relaxes localized curvature events into Kelvin wave packets. Consequently, a beyond local induction model provides a pathway for decay in low-temperature quantum turbulence.
We investigate the stability of vortices in two-dimensional Bose--Einstein condensates. In analogy with rotating spacetimes and with a careful account of boundary conditions, we show that the dynamical instability of multiply quantized vortices in trapped condensates persists in untrapped, spatially homogeneous geometries and has an ergoregion nature with some modification due to the peculiar dispersion of Bogoliubov sound. Our results open new perspectives to the physics of vortices in trapped condensates, where multiply quantized vortices can be stabilized by interference effects and singly …
We investigate the stability of vortices in two-dimensional Bose--Einstein condensates. In analogy with rotating spacetimes and with a careful account of boundary conditions, we show that the dynamical instability of multiply quantized vortices in trapped condensates persists in untrapped, spatially homogeneous geometries and has an ergoregion nature with some modification due to the peculiar dispersion of Bogoliubov sound. Our results open new perspectives to the physics of vortices in trapped condensates, where multiply quantized vortices can be stabilized by interference effects and singly …
We study the asymptotic interaction between two half-quantized vortices in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates. When two vortices in different components are placed at distance 2R, the leading order of the force between them is found to be (log R/ξ-1/2)/R^3, in contrast to 1/R between vortices placed in the same component. We derive it analytically using the Abrikosov ansatz and the profile functions of the vortices, confirmed numerically with the Gross-Pitaevskii model. We also find that the short-range cutoff of the inter-vortex potential linearly depends on the healing length.
We study the coupled atom-molecular quantized ring vortices of 87Rb Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC) trapped in a rotating three dimensional (3D) anisotropic cylindrical trap both in time independent and time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii approaches. For atom to molecular conversion and vice-versa two-photon Raman photoassociation scheme has been used. Atomic and molecular stationary state solutions show that the different number of nodes and crests formed in the density profile (as a function of r and z) for different combinations of radial (n) and axial (nz) quantum numbers at a fixed azimuthal …
We study numerically the structure of a vortex lattice in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with equal atomic masses and equal intra- and inter-component coupling strengths. The numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation show that the quantized vortices form uncertain lattice configurations accompanying the vortex stripes, honeycomb lattices, and their complexes. This is a result of the degeneracy of the system for the SU(2) symmetric operation, which makes a continuous transformation between the above structures. In terms of the pseudospin representation, the complex lattice…
We experimentally and numerically demonstrate deterministic creation and manipulation of a pair of oppositely charged singly quantized vortices in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Two identical blue-detuned, focused Gaussian laser beams that pierce the BEC serve as repulsive obstacles for the superfluid atomic gas; by controlling the positions of the beams within the plane of the BEC, superfluid flow is deterministically established around each beam such that two vortices of opposite circulation are generated by the motion of the beams, with each vortex pinned to the \emph{in si…
Experiments on dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates have recently reported the observation of supersolidity. Although quantized vortices constitute a key probe of superfluidity, their observability in dipolar supersolids is largely prevented by the strong density depletion caused by the formation of droplets. We present a novel approach to the nucleation of vortices and their observation, based on the quenching of the s-wave scattering length across the superfluid-supersolid transition. Starting from a slowly rotating, vortex-free, configuration in the superfluid phase, we predict vortex nucleati…
This study aims to research on dynamics of two quantized vortices in miscible two-component Bose--Einstein condensates, trapped by a circular box potential by using the Gross--Pitaevskii equation. We consider a situation in which two vortices belong to different components and they are initially close. Their dynamics are significantly different from those of a vortex pair in a single-component condensate. When two vortices are initially co-located, they are split by dynamical instability or remain co-located depending on their intercomponent interaction. If the two split vortices have the same…
We study spatially indirect excitons of GaAs quantum wells, confined in a 10 microns electrostatic trap. Below a critical temperature of about 1 Kelvin, we detect macroscopic spatial coherence and quantised vortices in the weak photoluminescence emitted from the trap. These quantum signatures are restricted to a narrow range of density, in a dilute regime. They manifest the formation of a four-component superfluid, made by a low population of optically bright excitons coherently coupled to a dominant fraction of optically dark excitons.
We apply the technique of reinforcement learning to the control of nonlinear matter waves. In this method, an agent controls the position, strength, and shape of an external Gaussian potential to create and manipulate quantized vortices in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a harmonic potential. The density and velocity distributions of the BEC at each moment obtained by the Gross-Pitaevskii evolution are directly input into a convolutional neural network to determine the next action of the agent. We demonstrate that a stationary single-vortex state can be produced in a two-dimensiona…
We report the experimental investigation and theoretical modeling of a rotating polariton superfluid relying on an innovative method for the injection of angular momentum. This novel, multi-pump injection method uses four coherent lasers arranged in a square, resonantly creating four polariton populations propagating inwards. The control available over the direction of propagation of the superflows allows injecting a controllable non-quantized amount of optical angular momentum. When the density at the center is low enough to neglect polariton-polariton interactions, optical singularities, ass…
We investigate the properties of quantized vortices in a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensed gas by means of a generalised Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The size of the vortex core hugely increases by increasing the weight of the dipolar interaction and approaching the transition to the supersolid phase. The critical angular velocity for the existence of an energetically stable vortex decreases in the supersolid, due to the reduced value of the density in the interdroplet region. The angular momentum per particle associated with the vortex line is shown to be smaller than $\hbar$, reflecting the redu…
We study numerically the dynamical instabilities and splitting of singly and doubly quantized composite vortices in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates harmonically confined to quasi two dimensions. In this system, the vortices become pointlike composite defects that can be classified in terms of an integer pair $(κ_1,κ_2)$ of phase winding numbers. Our simulations based on zero-temperature mean-field theory reveal several vortex splitting behaviors that stem from the multicomponent nature of the system and do not have direct counterparts in single-component condensates. By calculating the…
We study vortex dynamics in trapped two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with a laser- induced spin-orbit coupling using the numerical analysis of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The spin-orbit coupling leads to three distinct ground state phases, which depend on some experimentally controllable parameters. When a vortex is put in one or both of the two-component condensates, the vortex dynamics exhibits very different behaviors in each phase, which can be observed in experiments. These dynamical behaviors can be understood by clarifying the stable vortex structure realized in each phase.
The dynamical instability of weakly interacting two-component Bose--Einstein condensates with coaxial quantized vortices is analytically investigated in a two-dimensional isotopic harmonic potential. We examine whether complex eigenvalues appear on the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equation, implying dynamical instability. Rather than solving the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equation numerically, we rely on a perturbative expansion with respect to the coupling constant which enables a simple, analytic approach. For each pair of winding numbers and for each magnetic quantum number, the ranges of inter-compone…
We investigate theoretically the creation, persistence and detection of quantized vortices in nonequilibrium polariton condensates within a stochastic classical field model. The life time of the quantized vortices is shown to increase with the spatial coherence and to depend on the geometry of the condensate. The relation with superfluidity in conventional superfluids is discussed. Three different ways to measure the vorticity of the polariton condensate are proposed.
We investigate vortex solutions in the Ginzburg-Landau theory for neutron $^3P_2$ superfluids relevant for neutron star cores in which neutron pairs possess the total angular momentum $J=2$ with spin-triplet and $P$ wave, in the presence of the magnetic field parallel to the angular momentum of vortices. The ground state is known to be in the uniaxial nematic (UN) phase in the absence of magnetic field, while it is in the $D_2$ ($D_4$) biaxial nematic (BN) phase in the presence of the magnetic field below (above) the critical value. We find that a singly quantized vortex always splits into two…
We study the interaction and dynamics of two half-quantized vortices in two-component Bose- Einstein condensates. Using the Pade approximation for the vortex core profile, we calculate the intervortex potential, whose asymptotic form for a large distance has been derived by Eto et al. [Phys. Rev. A, 83, 063603 (2011)]. Through numerical simulations of the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equations, we reveal different kinds of dynamical trajectories of the vortices depending on the combinations of signs of circulations and the intercomponent density coupling. Under the adiabatic limit, we deri…
We compute the orbital angular momentum $L_z$ of an s-wave paired superfluid in the presence of an axisymmetric multiply quantized vortex. For vortices with winding number $|k| > 1$, we find that in the weak-pairing BCS regime $L_z$ is significantly reduced from its value $\hbar N k/2$ in the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) regime, where $N$ is the total number of fermions. This deviation results from the presence of unpaired fermions in the BCS ground state, which arise as a consequence of spectral flow along the vortex sub-gap states. We support our results analytically and numerically by s…
We demonstrate that the confinement of half-quantized vortices (HQVs) in coherently coupled Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) simulates certain aspects of the confinement in $SU(2)$ quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in 2+1 space-time dimensions. By identifying the circulation of superfluid velocity as the baryon number and the relative phase between two components as a dual gluon, we identify HQVs in a single component as electrically charged particles with a half baryon number. Further, we show that only singlet states of the relative phase of two components can stably exist as bound states of vort…
We consider the propagation of breathers along a quantised superfluid vortex. Using the correspondence between the local induction approximation (LIA) and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, we identify a set of initial conditions corresponding to breather solutions of vortex motion governed by the LIA. These initial conditions, which give rise to a long-wavelength modulational instability, result in the emergence of large amplitude perturbations that are localised in both space and time. The emergent structures on the vortex filament are analogous to loop solitons. Although the breather solut…
Formation of bound composite vortices of a singly-quantized $^1$S$_0$ vortex and half-quantized $^3$P$_2$ vortices in the $^1$S$_0$-$^3$P$_2$ coexisting phase in neutron stars
Institute of Science Tokyo（东京科学大学）；Keio University（庆应义塾大学）；Hiroshima University（广岛大学）；University of Tsukuba（筑波大学）；RIKEN Nishina Center（理化学研究所西村中心）
A rotating ultracold S-wave superfluid Fermi gas is considered, when the population imbalance (or equivalently the mismatch in chemical potentials) corresponds to the Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell (LOFF) state in the vicinity of the Lifshitz critical point. It is shown that under these conditions the critical angular velocity in two-dimensional systems is an oscillating function of temperature and population imbalance giving rise to reentrant superfluid phases. This leads to vortex lattices with multiple-quantized circulation quanta. The reason for this behavior is the population by Cooper …
We numerically investigate an experimentally viable method, that we will refer to as the "chopsticks method", for generating and manipulating on-demand several vortices in a highly oblate atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in order to initialize complex vortex distributions for studies of vortex dynamics. The method utilizes moving laser beams (the "chopsticks") to generate, capture and transport vortices inside and outside the BEC. We examine in detail this methodology and show a wide parameter range of applicability for the prototypical two-vortex case, and show case examples of producing…
Generic scaling laws, such as the Kolmogorov's 5/3-law, are milestone achievements of turbulence research in classical fluids. For quantum fluids such as atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, superfluid helium, and superfluid neutron stars, turbulence can also exist in the presence of a chaotic tangle of evolving quantized vortex lines. However, due to the lack of suitable experimental tools to directly probe the vortex-tangle motion, so far little is known about possible scaling laws that characterize the velocity correlations and trajectory statistics of the vortices in quantum-fluid turbulence …
The complex matter-field lattice model is a ubiquitous and universal physics model that directly links to many universal spin models. However, finding the ground state of such a model for the most general interactions between the lattice sites is an NP-hard problem. The knowledge of the ground state is crucially essential for the range of applications from quantum annealing to predicting new materials and understanding the behaviour of spin glasses. Here we show how letting the quantised quasi-3D vortex loops pass through the system during the dissipative quench dynamics helps it find its grou…
We numerically study the dynamics of quantized vortices in two-dimensional two-component Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) trapped by a box potential. For one-component BECs in a box potential, it is known that quantized vortices form Onsager vortices, which are clusters of same-sign vortices. We confirm that the vortices of the two components spatially separate from each other-even for miscible two-component BECs-suppressing the formation of Onsager vortices. This phenomenon is caused by the repulsive interaction between vortices belonging to different components, hence, suggesting a new possi…
Superfluid turbulence consisting of quantized vortices is called quantum turbulence (QT). Quantum turbulence and quantized vortices were discovered in superfluid $^4$He about 50 years ago, but innovation has occurred recently in this field. One is in the field of superfluid helium. Statistical quantities such as energy spectra and probability distribution function of the velocity field have been accessible both experimentally and numerically. Visualization technique has developed and succeeded in the direct visualization of quantized vortices. The other innovation is in the field of atomic Bos…
We study the dynamics of a doubly quantized vortex (DQV), created by releasing a ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate with quantized circulation into harmonic potential traps. It is shown that a DQV can be generated and exists stably in the middle of the ring-shaped condensate with the initial circulation $s = 2$ after released into the rotationally symmetric trap potential. For an asymmetric trap with a small degree of anisotropy the DQV initially splits into two singly quantized vortices and revives again but eventually evolves into two unit vortices due to the dynamic instability. For the d…
We investigate excitations and fluctuations of Bose-Einstein condensates in a two-dimensional torus with a uniformly moving Gaussian potential by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the Bogoliubov equation. The energy gap $Δ$ between the current-flowing metastable state (that reduces to the ground state for sufficiently slowly-moving potential) and the first excited state vanishes when the moving velocity $v$ of the potential approaches a critical velocity v_c(>0). We find a scaling law $Δ\propto (1-|v|/v_c)^{1/4}$, which implies that a characteristic time scale diverges toward the criti…
We consider a two-dimensional weakly interacting ultracold Bose gas whose constituents are two-level atoms. We study the effects of a synthetic density-dependent gauge field that arises from laser-matter coupling in the adiabatic limit with a laser configuration such that the single-particle zero-order vector potential corresponds to a constant synthetic magnetic field. We find a new exotic type of current non-linearity in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation which affects the dynamics of the order parameter of the condensate. We investigate the rotational properties of this system, focusing in parti…
We observe that a density-depleted vortex core evolves into concentric density ripples in a freely expanding quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate. The atomic density of the expanding condensate rapidly reduces due to the fast expansion along the tightly confining axial direction, and thus the transverse expansion of the condensate is not significantly affected by the atom-atom interactions. We find that the observed density profiles of the vortex cores are in good quantitative agreement with numerical simulations assuming no interactions. We analyze the defocused images of the vortex…
We investigate the various physical mechanisms that underlie the dynamical instability of a quantized vortex array at the interface between two counter-propagating superflows in a two-dimensional Bose--Einstein condensate. Instabilities of markedly different nature are found to dominate in different flow velocity regimes. For moderate velocities where the two flows are subsonic, the vortex lattice displays a quantized version of the hydrodynamic Kelvin--Helmholtz instability (KHI), with the vortices rolling up and co-rotating. For supersonic flow velocities, the oscillation involved in the KHI…
Superfluidity and superconductivity are remarkable manifestations of quantum coherence at a macroscopic scale. The dynamics of superfluids has dominated the study of these systems for decades now, but a comprehensive theoretical framework is still lacking. We introduce a local extension of the time-dependent density functional theory to describe the dynamics of fermionic superfluids. Within this approach one can correctly represent vortex quantization, generation, and dynamics, the transition from a superfluid to a normal phase and a number of other large amplitude collective modes which are b…
Vortices are commonly observed in the context of classical hydrodynamics: from whirlpools after stirring the coffee in a cup to a violent atmospheric phenomenon such as a tornado, all classical vortices are characterized by an arbitrary circulation value of the local velocity field. On the other hand the appearance of vortices with quantized circulation represents one of the fundamental signatures of macroscopic quantum phenomena. In two-dimensional superfluids quantized vortices play a key role in determining finite-temperature properties, as the superfluid phase and the normal state are sepa…
Exciton-polaritons are quasi-particles arising from the strong coupling regime between excitons and photons. In planar microcavitites, phenomena such as superfluidity or Bose-Einstein condensation can be observed. Those systems have demonstrated to be very efficient in the hydrodynamic generation of topological excitations, such as vortex-antivortex pairs or dark solitons. However, the lifetime and motion of those excitations were limited by the driven dissipative nature of the system. In this thesis, we present a rich variety of results about the generation and control of such topological exc…
We study numerically the dynamics of quantized vortices and solitons induced by an oscillating potential inside a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate. The dynamics of the topological defects is much different from the case for a linear uniform object; the metamorphosis between vortices and solitons is characteristic of the dynamics. We discuss how vortices are nucleated by an oscillating potential.
We show that double-quantum spin vortices, which are characterized by doubly quantized circulating spin currents and unmagnetized filled cores, can exist in the ground states of SU(3) spin-orbit coupled Bose gases. It is found that the SU(3) spin-orbit coupling and spin-exchange interaction play important roles in determining the ground-state phase diagram. In the case of effective ferromagnetic spin interaction, the SU(3) spin-orbit coupling induces a three-fold degeneracy to the magnetized ground state, while in the antiferromagnetic spin interaction case, the SU(3) spin-orbit coupling break…
We show that the interaction between vortices and sound waves in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates can be elucidated in a double-well trap: with one vortex in each well, the sound emitted by each precessing vortex can be driven into the opposing vortex (if of the same polarity). This cross-talk leads to a periodic exchange of energy between the vortices which is long-range and highly efficient. The increase in vortex energy (obtained by numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation) is significant and experimentally observable as a migration of the vortex to higher density over just a …
Caustics occur widely in dynamics and take on shapes classified by catastrophe theory. At finite wavelengths they produce interference patterns containing networks of vortices (phase singularities). Here we investigate caustics in quantized fields, focusing on the collective dynamics of quantum spins. We show that, following a quench, caustics are generated in the Fock space amplitudes specifying the many-body configuration and which are accessible in experiments with cold atoms, ions or photons. The granularity of quantum fields removes all singularities, including phase singularities, conver…
We determine the conditions under which superfluidity with and without quantized vortices appears in a weakly interacting two-component atomic Fermi gas that is trapped in a rotating cylindrical symmetric harmonic potential. We compute the phase diagram as a function of rotation frequency, scattering length, temperature, total number of trapped atoms, and population imbalance.
The hydrodynamics of quantized vortices and solitons in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate excited by an oscillating potential are studied by numerically solving the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The oscillating potential keeps nucleating vortex dipoles, whose impulses alternatively change their direction synchronously with the oscillation of the potential. This leads to synergy dynamics of vortices and solitons which have not been previously reported in quantum fluids.
