Vortex dynamics in Bose-Einstein Condensates

Quantized vortices have long been studied in  superconductors, liquid helium, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) etc. The observation of quantized vortices in BECs proves unambiguously the superfluidity of BECs. A rotating BEC mimics a type-II superconductor in applied magnetic field. A vortex in a BEC is a density zero region with localized phase singularity, while in a superconductor it is the region of flux penetration. The quantization of the angular momentum demands the need of critical rotational frequency for a single vortex generation. Our recent studies on the vortex dynamics included the investigation of effect of the three-body interaction, pinning of visible vortices and hidden vortices, effect of disorder on a vortex lattice etc. We have further shown that the vortex dynamics in BEC  is similar to that observed in type-II superconductors. The similarity in the vortex dynamics between the superfluid and the type-II superconductors is due to the fact that the transverse force or the Magnus force acting on a quantized  vortex in a superfluid and a type-II superconductor has the same form f = ρK × V, where ρ is the mass density, K denotes the quantized circulation vector, and V stands for the vortex velocity. In this talk, I mainly discuss about the vortex dynamics in Bose-Einstein condensates and reveals its connection with the vortex dynamics in type-II superconductor.