Exploring Vortex Dynamics in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Bose-Einstein Condensate is a particular state of matter in which the effects of quantum mechanics and many-body physics can be probed. When crossing a phase transition a new phase can nucleate at different points in the system depending on its geometry and quenching dynamics (Kibble-Zurek Mechanism). That occurs also for the BEC transition; where the different condensates meet the order parameter shows a phase discontinuity, leading to the appearance of objects like solitons or vortex, being the phase of the order parameter related to the velocity of the condensed fraction. Vorticity plays a central role in phenomena like superfluidity and superconductivity.
I will present the experimental characterization of the dynamic of defects produced via a stochastic process with a non-destructive technique based on series of micro-wave outcoupling of small parts of the condensate, permitting to follow the motion of vortices.