Giant vortex phase transition in rapidly rotating trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

A Bose-Einstein condensate of cold atoms is a superfluid and thus responds to rotation of its container by the nucleation of quantized vortices. If the trapping potential is sufficiently strong, there is no theoretical limit to the rotation frequency one can impose to the fluid, and several phase transitions characterized by the number and distribution of vortices occur when it is increased from 0 to ∞. In this note we focus on a regime of very large rotation velocity where vortices disappear from the bulk of the fluid, gathering in a central hole of low matter density induced by the centrifugal force. © 2013 EDP Sciences and Springer