Detecting phonons and persistent currents in toroidal Bose-Einstein condensates by means of pattern formation

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the dynamic properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a toroidal trap. A periodic modulation of the transverse confinement is shown to produce a density pattern due to parametric amplification of phonon pairs. By imaging the density distribution after free expansion one obtains i) a precise determination of the Bogoliubov spectrum and ii) a sensitive detection of quantized circulation in the torus. The parametric amplification is also sensitive to thermal and quantum fluctuations.

4 pages, 4 figures; new figures, revised version to appear as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review A