Dynamical evolution of a doubly-quantized vortex imprinted in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the decay of a doubly-quantized vortex in Bose-Einstein condensates using numerical solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, showing that dynamical instability causes vortex decay and aligning well with experimental observations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis that confirms dynamical instability as the main cause of vortex decay, reconciling local density approaches with experimental data.

Findings

Vortex decay is mainly due to dynamical instability.

Numerical results agree quantitatively with experiments.

Vortex splitting occurs consistently at similar times locally, regardless of condensate size.

Abstract

The recent experiment by Y. Shin \emph{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{93}, 160406 (2004)] on the decay of a doubly quantized vortex imprinted in $^{23}% $Na condensates is analyzed by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our results, which are in very good quantitative agreement with the experiment, demonstrate that the vortex decay is mainly a consequence of dynamical instability. Despite apparent contradictions, the local density approach is consistent with the experimental results. The monotonic increase observed in the vortex lifetimes is a consequence of the fact that, for large condensates, the measured lifetimes incorporate the time it takes for the initial perturbation to reach the central slice. When considered locally, the splitting occurs approximately at the same time in every condensate, regardless of its size.