Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.
For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.
To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Charlotte Carter

Thursday, May 28, 2009
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Ari Turner, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Host: Michael Forbes

TOPIC: Vortex Clusters in Condensates

Abstract
Superfluids made from atoms with spins can form many different types of vortices, unlike superfluid helium, which can support only ordinary vortices. Ordinary vortices are surrounded by a stable flow of atoms; the additional types of vortices also are wreathed by spin patterns. The more symmetry the condensate has, the greater the variety of vortices. An imperfection in the symmetry causes some of types vortices to form molecules, according to the laws of "vortex chemistry." I will explain some applications: one application predicts metastable vortex molecules for some types of condensates; the other predicts the mass of a spin-current vortex by thinking of the vortex as a bound state.