Stability of persistent currents in open-dissipative quantum fluids

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability of persistent currents in open-dissipative exciton-polariton superfluids within annular traps, extending superfluid flow stability analysis to non-conservative systems and identifying conditions for metastability.

Contribution

It introduces a stability analysis for persistent currents in open-dissipative exciton-polariton superfluids, a novel extension beyond conservative superfluid models.

Findings

Persistent currents can be metastable in large parameter regions.

Decay of supercurrents occurs via dynamical instability.

Stability conditions depend on system parameters.

Abstract

The phenomenon of stable persistent currents is central to the studies of superfluidity in a range of physical systems. While all of the previous theoretical studies of superfluid flows in annular geometries concentrated on conservative systems, here we extend the stability analysis of persistent currents to open-dissipative exciton-polariton superfluids. By considering an exciton-polariton condensate in an optically-induced annular trap, we determine stability conditions for an initially imposed flow with a non-zero orbital angular momentum. We show, theoretically and numerically, that the system can sustain metastable persistent currents in a large parameter region, and describe scenarios of the supercurrent decay due to the dynamical instability.