Vortex Dipole in a Trapped Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensate

TL;DR

This paper provides analytical calculations of vortex dipole properties in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates, explaining experimental phenomena and proposing methods for vortex dipole generation and detection.

Contribution

It introduces fully analytic expressions for vortex dipole energy and angular momentum, and applies these to interpret experimental results and suggest new experimental techniques.

Findings

Excellent agreement with MIT experiment data

Proposed methods for vortex dipole generation and detection

Discussion on collective mode frequency splitting

Abstract

We calculate the angular momentum and energy of a vortex dipole in a trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. Fully analytic expressions are obtained. We apply the results to understand a novel phenomenon in the MIT group experiment, an excellent agreement is achieved, and further experimental investigation is proposed to confirm this vortex dipole mechanism. We then suggest an effective generation and detection of vortex dipole for experimental realization. Application of the sum rule to calculate collective mode frequency splitting is also discussed.