Guiding-center dynamics of vortex dipoles in Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

A quantized vortex dipole is the simplest vortex molecule, comprising two counter-circulating vortex lines in a superfluid. Although vortex dipoles are endemic in two-dimensional superfluids, the precise details of their dynamics have remained largely unexplored. We present here several striking observations of vortex dipoles in dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates, and develop a vortex-particle model that generates vortex line trajectories that are in good agreement with the experimental data. Interestingly, these diverse trajectories exhibit essentially identical quasi-periodic behavior, in which the vortex lines undergo stable epicyclic orbits.

4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Spontaneous vortices in the formation of Bose-Einstein condensates
• Experimental observation of oscillating and interacting matter wave dark solitons
• A vortex dipole in a trapped two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate
• Stability and dynamics of vortex clusters in nonrotated Bose-Einstein condensates
• Size and dynamics of vortex dipoles in dilute Bose-Einstein condensates