Rapidly rotating atomic gases

This article reviews developments in the theory of rapidly rotating degenerate atomic gases. The main focus is on the equilibrium properties of a single component atomic Bose gas, which (at least at rest) forms a Bose-Einstein condensate. Rotation leads to the formation of quantized vortices which order into a vortex array, in close analogy with the behaviour of superfluid helium. Under conditions of rapid rotation, when the vortex density becomes large, atomic Bose gases offer the possibility to explore the physics of quantized vortices in novel parameter regimes. First, there is an interesting regime in which the vortices become sufficiently dense that their cores – as set by the healing length – start to…

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  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  Award: EP/F032773/1