Observations on Sound Propagation in Rapidly Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how sound waves propagate in rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing complex phenomena like interference, shock waves, and anisotropic behavior through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It provides new experimental observations and high-accuracy computational models of sound propagation in vortex-laden, rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates.

Findings

Observation of propagating density waves induced by laser pulses

Identification of interference and shock-wave phenomena

Detection of anisotropic sound propagation patterns

Abstract

Repulsive laser potential pulses applied to vortex lattices of rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates create propagating density waves which we have observed experimentally and modeled computationally to high accuracy. We have observed a rich variety of dynamical phenomena ranging from interference effects and shock-wave formation to anisotropic sound propagation.