Contributor info: Dr Andrew Groszek

Charles W. Woffinden, Andrew J. Groszek, Guillaume Gauthier, Bradley J. Mommers, Michael. W. J. Bromley, Simon A. Haine, Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop, Matthew J. Davis, Tyler W. Neely, Mark Baker

SciPost Phys. 15, 128 (2023) · published 2 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We demonstrate the use of a ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate as a rotation sensor by measuring the interference between two counter-propagating phonon modes imprinted azimuthally around the ring. We observe rapid decay of the excitations, quantified by quality factors of at most Q ≈ 27. We numerically model our experiment using the c-field methodology, allowing us to estimate the parameters that maximise the performance of our sensor. We explore the damping mechanisms underlying the observed phonon decay, and identify two distinct Landau scattering processes that each dominate at different driving amplitudes and temperatures. Our simulations reveal that Q is limited by strong damping of phonons even in the zero temperature limit. We perform an experimental proof-of-principle rotation measurement using persistent currents imprinted around the ring. We demonstrate a rotation sensitivity of up to $\Delta \Omega ≈ 0.3 rad s^{-1}$ from a single image, with a theoretically achievable value of $\Delta \Omega ≈ 0.04 rad s^{-1}$ in the atomic shot-noise limit. This is a significant improvement over the shot-noise-limited $\Delta \Omega ≈ 1 rad s^{-1}$ sensitivity obtained by Marti et al. [Phys. Rev. A 91, 013602 (2015)] for a similar setup.

Andrew J. Groszek, Matthew J. Davis, Tapio P. Simula

SciPost Phys. 8, 039 (2020) · published 12 March 2020 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We numerically model decaying quantum turbulence in two-dimensional disk-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates, and investigate the effects of finite temperature on the turbulent dynamics. We prepare initial states with a range of condensate temperatures, and imprint equal numbers of vortices and antivortices at randomly chosen positions throughout the fluid. The initial states are then subjected to unitary time-evolution within the c-field methodology. For the lowest condensate temperatures, the results of the zero temperature Gross-Pitaevskii theory are reproduced, whereby vortex evaporative heating leads to the formation of Onsager vortex clusters characterised by a negative absolute vortex temperature. At higher condensate temperatures the dissipative effects due to vortex-phonon interactions tend to drive the vortex gas towards positive vortex temperatures dominated by the presence of vortex dipoles. We associate these two behaviours with the system evolving toward an anomalous non-thermal fixed point, or a Gaussian thermal fixed point, respectively.