Kelvin-Tkachenko waves of few-vortex arrays in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We have calculated the low-lying elementary excitations of three-dimensional few-vortex arrays in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates. The number of different Kelvin-Tkachenko vortex wave branches matches the number of vortices in the condensate. The lowest odd-parity modes exhibit superfluid gyroscopic vortex motion. Experimentally, these modes could be excited and observed individually or in connection with the formation and decay of quantum turbulence.