Superfluidity in Dilute Trapped Bose Gases

Abstract

A commonly used theoretical definition of superfluidity in the ground state of a Bose gas is based on the response of the system to an imposed velocity field or, equivalently, to twisted boundary conditions in a box. We are able to carry out this program in the case of a dilute interacting Bose gas in a trap. We prove that a gas with repulsive interactions is 100% superfluid in the dilute limit in which the Gross-Pitaevskii equation is exact. This is the first example in an experimentally realistic continuum model in which superfluidity is rigorously verified.