A team of quantum physicists from Innsbruck, Austria, led by three-time ERC laureate Francesca Ferlaino has established a new method to observe vortices in dipolar quantum gases. These quantum vortices are considered a strong indication of superfluidity, the frictionless flow of a quantum gas, and have now been experimentally detected for the first time in dipolar gases.
Vortices are ubiquitous in nature: Whirling up water can create swirls. When the atmosphere is stirred up, huge tornadoes can form. This is also the case in the quantum world, except that there many identical vortices are being formed simultaneously - the vortex is quantized. In many quantum gases, such quantized vortices have already been demonstrated. “This is interesting because such vortices are a clear indication of the frictionless flow of a quantum gas - the so-called superfluidity,” says Francesca Ferlaino from the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck and the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Read more at: University of Innsbruck
Illustration of the density distribution of a rotating dipolar Bose-Einstein-Condensate (dBEC) exhibiting quantized vortices based on simulation data from the paper. The vortices, visible via their density dips in the dBEC, arrange in stripes due to the anisotropic and long-range character of the dipolar interactions between the atoms. (Photo Credit: Ella Maru Studio scientific-illustrations.com)