Vortex lattices in Bose-Einstein condensates: From the Thomas-Fermi regime to the lowest-Landau-level regime

Abstract

We consider a periodic vortex lattice in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensed gas, where the centrifugal potential is exactly compensated by the external harmonic trap. By introducing a gauge transformation which makes the Hamiltonian periodic, we solve numerically the 2D Gross-Pitaevskii equation finding the exact mean field ground state. In particular, we explore the crossover between the Thomas-Fermi regime, holding for large values of the coupling constant, and the lowest Landau level limit, corresponding to the weakly interacting case. Explicit results are given for the equation of state, the vortex core size, as well as the elastic shear modulus, which is crucial for the calculation of the Tkachenko frequencies.