Atom optics with rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper explores the behavior of vortex-containing Bose-Einstein condensates in atom optics, focusing on their reflection from atomic mirrors and the symmetry-breaking effects of strong attractive interactions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of vortex condensate reflection and reveals symmetry-breaking phenomena in rotating condensates with strong nonlinearity.

Findings

Vortex condensates reflect differently on atomic mirrors.

Strong attractive interactions lead to rotational symmetry breaking.

Rotational dynamics depend on nonlinearity strength.

Abstract

The atom optics of Bose-Einstein condensates containing a vortex of circulation one is discussed. We first analyze in detail the reflection of such a condensate falling on an atomic mirror. In a second part, we consider a rotating condensate in the case of attractive interactions. We show that for sufficiently large nonlinearity the rotational symmetry of the rotating condensate is broken.