Expansion dynamics of a cylindrical-shell-shaped strongly dipolar condensate

Abstract

A Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) formed on a curved surface with a distinct topology has been a hot topic of intense research, in search of new phenomena in quantum physics as well as for its possible application in quantum computing. In addition to the study of a spherical-shell-shaped BEC, we studied the formation of a cylindrical-shell-shaped harmonically-trapped dipolar BEC of 164Dy atoms theoretically using an improved mean-field model including a Lee-Huang-Yang-type interaction, meant to stop a collapse at high atom density. To test the robustness of the cylindrical-shell-shaped BEC, here we study its expansion in the same model. We find that as the harmonic trap in the x and y directions are removed, maintaining the axial trap, the cylindrical-shell-shaped BEC expands in the x-y plane without deformation, maintaining its shell-shaped structure. After an adequate radial expansion, the axial trap can be relaxed for a desired axial expansion of the cylindrical-shell-shaped BEC allowing its observation.