Decay of multiply charged vortices at nonzero temperatures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how multiply charged vortices in a system decay at nonzero temperatures, revealing that increased thermal atoms and vortex charge lead to faster decay and specific splitting behaviors.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of vortex decay mechanisms at finite temperatures, highlighting the role of thermal atoms and vortex charge in the instability process.

Findings

Decay time decreases with higher vortex charge

Thermal atoms increase before vortex decay

Vortex splitting occurs after oscillation amplitude rise

Abstract

We study the instability of multiply charged vortices in the presence of thermal atoms and find various scenarios of splitting of such vortices. The onset of the decay of a vortex is always preceded by the increase of a number of thermal (uncondensed) atoms in the system and manifests itself by the sudden rise of the amplitude of the oscillations of the quadrupole moment. Our calculations show that the decay time gets shorter when the multiplicity of a vortex becomes higher.