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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Overcritical rotation of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate
A Recati1, F Zambelli, S Stringari
1International School of Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy.
Abstract:
The rotational motion of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate confined by a harmonic trap is investigated by solving the hydrodynamic equations of superfluids, with the irrotationality constraint for the velocity field. We point out the occurrence of an overcritical branch where the system can rotate with angular velocity larger than the oscillator frequencies. We show that in the case of isotropic trapping the system exhibits a bifurcation from an axisymmetric to a triaxial configuration, as a consequence of the interatomic forces. The dynamical stability of the rotational motion with respect to the dipole and quadrupole oscillations is explicitly discussed.
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