Rotational states of Bose gases with attractive interactions in anharmonic traps

Abstract

A rotated and harmonically trapped Bose gas with attractive interactions is expected to either remain stationary or escape from the trap. Here we report that, on the contrary, in an anharmonic trapping potential the Bose gas with attractive interactions responds to external rotation very differently, namely through center-of-mass motion or by formation of vortices, depending on the strengths of the interaction and the anharmonic term in the trapping potential.