Persistent current oscillations in a double-ring quantum gas

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to control and observe persistent current oscillations between coupled ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates, with implications for precision measurement devices.

Contribution

We develop a tunable weak link technique to engineer and analyze vorticity transfer in coupled quantum rings, advancing control over quantum fluid circuits.

Findings

Controlled periodic transfer of current observed

Temperature effects on oscillation suppression characterized

Potential for high-precision rotation sensing demonstrated

Abstract

Vorticity in closed quantum fluid circuits is known to arise in the form of persistent currents. In this work, we develop a method to engineer transport of the quantized vorticity between density-coupled ring-shaped atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in experimentally accessible regimes. Introducing a tunable weak link between the rings, we observe and characterize the controllable periodic transfer of the current and investigate the role of temperature on suppressing these oscillations via a range of complementary state-of-the-art numerical methods. Our setup paves the way for precision measurements of local acceleration and rotation.