Creation of persistent current and vortex in a Bose-Einstein condensate of alkali-metal atoms

Abstract

It is shown theoretically that a persistent current can be continuously created in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of alkali atoms confined in a multiply connected region by making use of a spin-degree of freedom of the order parameter of a BEC. We demonstrate that this persistent current is easily transformed into a vortex. Relaxation processes of these BEC after the confining field is turned off are also studied so that our analyses are compared with time of flight experiments. The results are shown to clearly reflect the existence of a persistent current.