Abstract
Vortex shedding from an obstacle potential moving in a Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated. Long-lived alternately aligned vortex pairs are found to form in the wake, which is similar to the Bénard-von Kármán vortex street in classical viscous fluids. Various patterns of vortex shedding are systematically studied and the drag force on the obstacle is calculated. It is shown that the phenomenon can be observed in a trapped system.
Highlights
The formation of a train of alternate vortices in the wake past an obstacle, known as the Benard–von Karman vortex street, is a ubiquitous and intriguing phenomenon in fluids
In this Letter, by numerically solving the GrossPitaevskii (GP) equation, we show that long-lived alternately aligned vortex pairs are formed in the wake of an obstacle potential moving in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), which is similar to the vortex street in classical fluids
Mean-field analysis of systems of a BEC with a moving potential has been performed by many authors from the viewpoints of drag force [5,6,7], vortex dynamics near the cylinder [8,9], critical velocity [10], scaling laws [11], supersonic flows [12,13], and multicomponent systems [14,15]
Summary
Week ending 16 APRIL 2010 periodic behaviors shown in Figs. 1(a) and 1(b) are located between the regions of steady laminar flow We note that the parameter region for vortex street formation is rather restricted, 0:04 & d= & 0:13 and 1:9 & v~ & 2:8, where v~ 1⁄4. This is in contrast with classical fluids, in which the vortex street emerges for a wide range of Reynolds number.
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