Emergence of turbulence in an oscillating Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental observation of vortex tangles indicating turbulence in an oscillating Bose-Einstein condensate, revealing unique expansion behavior and offering new insights into quantum turbulence phenomena.

Contribution

First experimental demonstration of turbulence in an oscillating BEC with vortex tangles and altered expansion dynamics compared to non-turbulent condensates.

Findings

Vortex tangle observed in oscillating BEC

Suppressed aspect ratio inversion during expansion

Turbulent cloud maintains constant aspect ratio

Abstract

We report on the experimental observation of vortices tangle in an atomic BEC of Rb-87 atoms when an external oscillatory perturbation is introduced in the trap. The vortices tangle configuration is a signature of the presence of a turbulent regime in the cloud. We also show that this turbulent cloud has suppression of the aspect ratio inversion typically observed in quantum degenerate bosonic gases during free expansion. Instead, the cloud expands keeping the ratio between their axis constant. Turbulence in atomic superfluids may constitute an alternative system to investigate decay mechanisms as well as to test fundamental theoretical aspects in this field.