Dynamics of topological defects in a Rashba spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate
Phys. Rev. A 112, 033304 – Published 3 September, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qlx5-dqr3
Abstract
We investigate the quench dynamics of a two-dimensional Rashba spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate. Our study focuses on quenching the system from a zero-momentum phase to a stripe phase. During this quench, topological defects emerge in the form of vortices. These vortices and antivortices exhibit a random spatial distribution with equal numbers. In a uniform system, we observe an exponential scaling of both the vortex production time and the vortex number with the quench rate, consistent with the conventional Kibble-Zurek mechanism, the decay of which adheres to a logarithmic law, aligning with experimental observations.
