Pair correlated atoms with a twist

Abstract

We present an analysis of the quantum state resulting from the dissociation of diatomic molecules prepared in a condensate vortex state. The many-body state preserves the rotational symmetry of the system in quantum correlated states by having two equally populated components with angular momentum adding to unity. A simple two-mode analysis and a full quantum field analysis is presented for the case of non-interacting atoms and weak depletion of the molecular condensate.