Localization of a Bose-Einstein condensate vortex in a bichromatic optical lattice

Abstract

By numerical simulation of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation we show that a weakly interacting or noninteracting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) vortex can be localized in a three-dimensional bichromatic quasi-periodic optical-lattice (OL) potential generated by the superposition of two standing-wave polarized laser beams with incommensurate wavelengths. This is a generalization of the localization of a BEC in a one-dimensional bichromatic OL as studied in a recent experiment [Roati et al., Nature 453, 895 (2008)]. We demonstrate the stability of the localized state by considering its time evolution in the form of a stable breathing oscillation in a slightly altered potential for a large period of time. {Finally, we consider the localization of a BEC in a random 1D potential in the form of several identical repulsive spikes arbitrarily distributed in space.