Vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates with dominant dipolar interactions

M. ABAD; M. GUILLEUMAS; R. MAYOL; M. PI; D. M. JEZEK

PHYSICAL REVIEW A - ATOMIC, MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2009 vol. 79 p. 636221 - 636229

1050-2947

We present full three-dimensional numerical calculations of single vortex states in rotating dipolar condensates. We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate of 52Cr atoms with dipole-dipole and s-wave contact interactions  confined in an axially symmetric harmonic trap. We obtain the vortex states by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the rotating frame with no further approximations.We investigate the properties of a single vortex and calculate the critical angular velocity for different values of the s-wave scattering length. We show that, whereas the standard variational approach breaks down in the limit of pure dipolar interactions, exact solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation can be obtained for values of the s-wave scattering length  down to zero. The energy barrier for the nucleation of a vortex is calculated as a function of the vortex displacement from the rotation axis for different values of the angular velocity of the rotating trap.