Title: Excitations of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in an optical toroidal potential due to rotational flow

Anand Ramanathan, Sérgio R. Muniz, Kristian Helmerson, William D. Phillips

Atomic Physics Division, NIST Gaithersburg, MD 20899.

An interacting Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is expected to exhibit superfluidity. Persistent currents in a magnetically trapped, toroidal shaped BEC have been seen lasting up to 10 seconds [1]. However, rotational flow in our quasi-2D optical dipole ring trap was observed to create vortex-like excitations. Theoretical predictions indicate that even small “bumps” in the toroidal potential can greatly affect rotational superflow. Studying the effect of the quasi-2D nature of the trap and the inhomogeneities in the optical potential could give useful insights into the nature of superfluidity in a BEC.

[1] C. Ryu, M. F. Andersen, P. Cladé, Vasant Natarajan, K. Helmerson, and W. D. Phillips, Physical Review Letters, 99 260401 (2007)

CATEGORY: Physics

Mentors Name: Kristian Helmerson

Division 842, Laser Cooling and Trapping Group

Room B235, Building 216 Mail stop 8424

Tel:301-975-6572

Fax:301-975-8272

Email:anand.ramanathan@nist.gov

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