Dynamics of massive point vortices in a binary mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the massive point-vortex model introduced in Richaud et al. [A. Richaud, V. Penna, R. Mayol, and M. Guilleumas, Plays. Rev. A 101, 013630 (2020)], which describes two-dimensional point vortices of one species that have small cores of a different species. We derive the relevant Lagrangian itself, based on the time-dependent variational method with a two-component Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) trial function. The resulting Lagrangian resembles that of charged particles in a static electromagnetic field, where the canonical momentum includes an electromagnetic term. The simplest example is a single vortex with a rigid circular boundary, where a massless vortex can only precess uniformly. In contrast, the presence of a sufficiently large filled vortex core renders such precession unstable. A small core mass can also lead to small radial oscillations, which are, in turn, clear evidence of the associated inertial effect. Detailed numerical analysis of coupled two-component GP equations with a single vortex and small second-component core confirms the presence of such radial oscillations, implying that this more realistic GP vortex also acts as if it has a small massive core.

Automated summary

The study focuses on the massive point-vortex model with small cores of a different species in two dimensions. By deriving the relevant Lagrangian and conducting detailed numerical analysis, it is found that radial oscillations and inertial effects can occur in these vortices.