The critical velocity for vortex existence in a two-dimensional rotating Bose-Einstein condensate (Q820078)

The wave function of a Bose-Einstein condensate that is confined in the direction of the rotation axis by a harmonic trap decouples and can be analyzed in a two-dimensional setting. In this case, minimizing a modified Gross-Pitaevskii functional on a weighted Sobolev space under the unit mass constraint, the authors give an asymptotic estimate of the critical angular velocity for the nucleation of vortices in the interior of the region occupied by the condensate. In addition, near the critical velocity several estimates on the energy and the shape of the minimizer, and on the location of its vortex are proved.