title: Quench-induced supercurrents in an annular Bose gas.
abstract: We create supercurrents in annular two-dimensional Bose gases through a temperature quench of the normal-to-superfluid phase transition. We detect the magnitude and the direction of these supercurrents by measuring spiral patterns resulting from the interference of the cloud with a central reference disk. These measurements demonstrate the stochastic nature of the supercurrents. We further measure their distribution for different quench times and compare it with predictions based on the Kibble-Zurek mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, ENS, Collège de France, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corman
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, ENS, Collège de France, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France and Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chomaz
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, ENS, Collège de France, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bienaimé
authors.affiliation: Institut für Quantenelektronics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Desbuquois
authors.affiliation: Institut für Laserphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weitenberg
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, ENS, Collège de France, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nascimbène
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, ENS, Collège de France, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France and Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dalibard
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, ENS, Collège de France, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beugnon