Stuart Moulder, Scott Beattie, Robert P. Smith, Naaman Tammuz, Zoran Hadzibabic
We study metastability and decay of multiply-charged superflow in a ring-shaped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. Supercurrent corresponding to a giant vortex with topological charge up to q=10 is phase-imprinted optically and detected both interferometrically and kinematically. We observe q=3 superflow persisting for up to a minute and clearly resolve a cascade of quantised steps in the eventual decay of the supercurrent. These stochastic glitches in the superflow, associated with vortex-induced phase slips, correspond to collective jumps of atoms between discrete q values. We also quantitatively study time-resolved dynamics of phase slips.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.0334
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