Feder, D.L., Clark, C.W., and Schneider, B.I., "Nucleation of Vortex Arrays in Rotating Anisotropic Bose-Einstein Condensates," Phys. Rev. A 61, 011601 (2000).

Description:

A Bose Einstein condensate, or BEC, is an unusual form of matter, a collection of about 1 million atoms all at exactly the same energy level, behaving exactly alike. BEC atoms are to a cloud of atoms what a laser is to a light bulb. Since BECs first were observed in 1995 at JILA by NIST and University of Colorado scientists, physicists worldwide have devised experiments to probe their unique properties. One question to be answered: Are BECs a superfluid—a sort of liquid/gas that flows without friction?

NIST theorists proposed a test of superfluidity of a BEC. The NIST test would spin a BEC in an elliptically shaped trap. If BEC behaved as a classic fluid (such as water), it would form a single vortex in the center of the trap as it spins. However, if it were a superfluid (such as liquid helium), it would resist rotating completely until the angles forced on it by the elliptical trap gave rise to an even number of well-organized quantum vortices.

A NIST simulation of the experiment performed through the wonder of mathematical modeling (see graphic above) clearly produced these vortices and, with the help of NIST scientific visualization specialists, serendipitously created an image that is as beautiful as it is informative. What remains is for experimentalists to pick up the gauntlet and test the theory in the laboratory. The JILA team already has produced BEC vortex states under different circumstances.
 

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