Spontaneous squeezing of a vortex in an optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum effects can cause a vortex in a Bose-Einstein condensate within an optical lattice to become strongly squeezed, affecting its quantum uncertainty and observable atomic density distributions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of quantum squeezing of a vortex in a BEC in an optical lattice, highlighting the importance of quantum effects on vortex states.

Findings

Quantum effects can significantly influence vortex states.

Vortices can be strongly squeezed, altering their quantum uncertainty.

Squeezing effects are observable via atomic density measurements after expansion.

Abstract

We study the equilibrium states of a vortex in a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We find that quantum effects can be important and that it is even possible for the vortex to be strongly squeezed, which reflects itself in a different quantum mechanical uncertainty of the vortex position in two orthogonal directions. The latter is observable by measuring the atomic density after an expansion of the Bose-Einstein condensate in the lattice.