Classical electrodynamics analogy of two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates

H. M. CATALDO

Bose-Einstein condensates: Theory, Characteristics, and Current Research

Nova Science Publishers

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2010;

The previously explored analogy between a two-dimensional homogeneous superfluid and a (2+1)-dimensional electrodynamic system is extended to the case of a confined Bose-Einstein condensate. More precisely, a whole mapping between the hydrodynamics of a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate and the nonrelativistic classical electrodynamics of a charged material medium is developed and analyzed. In such an analogy, macroscopic charges and electromagnetic radiation play the role of vortices and sound radiation, respectively. The mapping is shown to provide a very useful frame to discuss several features of vortex dynamics and induced velocity fields. Particularly, two important local conservation theorems of energy and angular momentum are easily derived. The controversial question of the vortex inertia is also studied from the viewpoint of the electromagnetic analogy, finding a qualitative agreement between the dissipative inertial effects in a uniform superfluid system and the numerical simulation results of vortex motion in a Bose-Einstein condensate.