Persistent Currents in Ferromagnetic Condensates

Abstract

Persistent currents in Bose condensates with a scalar order parameter are stabilized by the topology of the order parameter manifold. In condensates with multicomponent order parameters it is topologically possible for supercurrents to `unwind' without leaving the manifold. We study the energetics of this process in the case of ferromagnetic condensates using a long wavelength energy functional that includes both the superfluid and spin stiffnesses. Exploiting analogies to an elastic rod and rigid body motion, we show that the current carrying state in a 1D ring geometry transitions between a spin helix in the energy minima and a soliton-like configuration at the maxima. The relevance to recent experiments in ultracold atoms is briefly discussed.

10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted version

References in corpus (3)

• Persistent currents in spinor condensates
• Long wavelength spin dynamics of ferromagnetic condensates
• Mean-field yrast spectrum and persistent currents in a two-component Bose gas with interaction asymmetry

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Spin-polarized superconductivity: order parameter topology, current dissipation, and multiple-period Josephson effect
• Superfluid spin transport in magnetically ordered solids
• Interplay of spin and mass superfluidity in antiferromagnetic spin-1 BEC and bicirculation vortices
• Unvortex Lattice and Topological Defects in Rigidly Rotating Multicomponent Superfluids