Controlled creation and decay of singly-quantized vortices in a polar magnetic phase

Abstract

Superfluid vortices are important in many diverse systems, including spinor Bose-Einstein condensates. Here, the experimental and theoretical analysis of the creation and time evolution of vortices in the polar phase of a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate is presented, showing the evolution of single-quantum vortices towards half-quantum ones.