Few- to many-vortex states of density-angular-momentum–coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments, we theoretically study a gas of atomic bosons confined in an elliptical harmonic trap; forming a quasi-two-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a density-dependent gauge potential which realises an effective density-angular-momentum coupling. We present exact Thomas-Fermi solutions which allows us to identify the stable regimes of the full parameter space of the model. Accompanying numerical simulations reveal the effect of the interplay of the rigid body and density-angular-momentum coupling for the elliptically confined condensate. By varying the strength of the gauge potential and trap anisotropy we explore how the superfluid state emerges in different experimentally accessible geometries, while for large rotation strengths dense vortex lattices and concentric vortex ring arrangements are obtained.