The Condition for Existence of Complex Modes in Trapped Bose–Einstein Condensate with a Highly Quantized Vortex

Abstract

We consider a trapped Bose–Einstein condensate with a highly quantized vortex. Pu et al. found numerically the parameter region in which complex eigenvalues arise. Recently, the splitting of a highly quantized vortex into two singly quantized vortices is observed in the experiment. We derive analytically the condition for the existence of complex eigenvalues by using the small coupling constant expansion and the two-mode approximation. We check that our results agree with those by Pu et al.