# Vortex precession in trapped superfluids from effective field theory

## TL;DR

This paper uses effective field theory to analyze vortex precession in trapped superfluids, deriving results for vortex dynamics without relying on microscopic models, and connecting to known non-relativistic results.

## Contribution

It introduces a relativistic effective string theory approach to vortex dynamics in trapped superfluids, extending previous models and providing a new framework for understanding vortex behavior.

## Key findings

- Derived the spatial dependence of superfluid density in traps.
- Calculated vortex orbital frequency and trajectory.
- Connected relativistic results to non-relativistic Gross-Pitaevskii models.

## Abstract

We apply a recently developed effective string theory for vortex lines to the case of two-dimensional trapped superfluids. We do not assume a perturbative microscopic description for the superfluid, but only a gradient expansion for the long-distance hydrodynamical description and for the trapping potential. For any regular trapping potential, we compute the spatial dependence of the superfluid density and the orbital frequency and trajectory of an off-center vortex. Our results are fully relativistic, and in the non-relativistic limit reduce to known results based on the Gross-Pitaevskii model. In our formalism, the leading effect in the non-relativistic limit arises from two simple Feynman diagrams in which the vortex interacts with the trapping potential through the exchange of hydrodynamical modes.