Vortex precession in Bose-Einstein condensates: observations with filled and empty cores.
We have observed and characterized the dynamics of singly quantized vortices in dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates. Our condensates are produced in a superposition of two internal states of 87Rb, with one state supporting a vortex and the other filling the vortex core. Subsequently, the state filling the core can be partially or completely removed, reducing the radius of the core by as much as a factor of 13, all the way down to its bare value of the healing length. The corresponding superfluid rotation rates, evaluated at the core radius, vary by a factor of 150, but the precession frequency of the vortex core about the condensate axis changes by only a factor of 2.
Anderson
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JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA.
Haljan
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Wieman
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Cornell
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