Gaussian impurity moving through a Bose-Einstein superfluid

Abstract

In this paper a Gaussian impurity moving through an equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensate at T = 0 is studied. The problem can be described by a Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which is solved perturbatively. The analysis is done for systems of 2 and 3 spatial dimensions and generalises the work by [G.E. Astrakharchik and L.P. Pitaevskii, Phys. Rev. A 70, 013608 (2004)]. The Bogoliubov equation solutions for the condensate perturbed by a finite impurity are calculated in the co-moving frame, which are formally equivalent up to a dimension dependent form factor for general dimensions. From those solutions the total energy of the perturbed system is determined as a function of the width and the amplitude of the moving Gaussian impurity and its velocity. Finally we derive the drag force the Gaussian impurity approximately experiences as it moves through the superfluid, which proofs the existence of a superfluid phase for finite extensions of the impurities below the speed of sound and that the force increases monotonically with velocity until it decreases again.