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Instabilities leading to vortex lattice formation in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

N. G. Parker, R. M. W. van Bijnen, A. M. Martin

cond-mat.otherarXiv:cond-mat/0604151

Abstract

We present a comprehensive theoretical study of vortex lattice formation in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates confined by a rotating elliptical trap. We consider rotating solutions of the classical hydrodynamic equations, their response to perturbations, as well as time-dependent simulations. We discriminate three distinct, experimentally testable, regimes of instability: ripple, interbranch, and catastrophic. Under symmetry-breaking perturbations these instabilities lead to lattice formation even at zero temperature. While our results are consistent with previous theoretical and experimental results, they shed new light on lattice formation.

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