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  • Open Access

Efficient simulation of Bose-Einstein condensates in nontrivial topologies

A. Beregi, J.-B. Gerent, and N. Lundblad*

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine 04240, USA

  • *Contact author: nlundbla@bates.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 043051 – Published 15 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/j2db-xh7h

Abstract

Bubble-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) constitute a unique class of quantum fluids with a hollow, thin-shell geometry that supports a wide variety of phenomena distinct from those of compact condensates. Numerical simulation of such systems is particularly challenging due to their inherently three-dimensional structure and extreme aspect ratios. We present an efficient finite-difference simulation framework for solving partial differential equations in nontrivial topologies, with a focus on the static and dynamical modeling of bubble-shaped BECs. By employing selective spatial sampling on a semistructured grid, our method substantially reduces memory usage and achieves more than an order-of-magnitude improvement in computational performance compared with conventional split-step Fourier solvers. The algorithm is naturally extendable to highly parallel execution on graphics processing units (GPUs), enabling large-scale, time-dependent simulations of thin-shell condensates. We apply this framework to simulate the formation of bubble BECs through a controlled hollowing-out protocol using ab initio trapping potentials relevant to the Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station. From these simulations, we identify characteristic timescales and parameter ramps required to achieve adiabatic evolution, thereby assessing the feasibility of experimentally realizing bubble-shaped condensates in microgravity environments.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 043051– Published 15 October, 2026
  • Received 4 March 2026
  • Accepted 11 September 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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