Spin-orbit-coupling induced localization in the expansion of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

Chunlei Qu, Lev P. Pitaevskii, Sandro Stringari

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

By developing a hydrodynamic formalism, we investigate the expansion dynamics of the single-minimum phase of a binary spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate, after releasing from an external harmonic trap. We find that the expansion of the condensate along the direction of the spin-orbit coupling is dramatically slowed down near the transition between the single-minimum phase and the plane-wave phase. Such a slow expansion, resembling a form of an effective localization, is due to the quenching of the superfluid motion which results in a strong increase of the effective mass. In the single-minimum phase the anisotropic expansion of the Bose gas, which is spin balanced at equilibrium, is accompanied by the emergence of a local spin polarization. Our analytic scaling solutions emerging from hydrodynamic picture are compared with a full numerical simulation based on the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number085006
JournalNew Journal of Physics
Volume19
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 31 Aug 2017

Keywords

  • BoseEinstein condensate
  • expansion
  • localization
  • spinoribt coupling

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