Vortex formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a rotating deep optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vortices form and arrange in a Bose-Einstein condensate within a rotating optical lattice, using simulations to explore different regimes and compare with experimental results.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of vortex dynamics in a rotating optical lattice, highlighting the dependence on lattice parameters and matching experimental observations.

Findings

Identification of different vortex nucleation regimes

Dependence of critical rotation frequency on lattice parameters

Agreement with experimental vortex number trends

Abstract

We study the dynamics of vortex nucleation and lattice formation in a Bose--Einstein condensate in a rotating square optical lattice by numerical simulations of the Gross--Pitaevskii equation. Different dynamical regimes of vortex nucleation are found, depending on the depth and period of the optical lattice. We make an extensive comparison with the experiments by Williams {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 104}, 050404 (2010)], especially focusing on the issues of the critical rotation frequency for the first vortex nucleation and the vortex number as a function of rotation frequency.