Discrete vortex solitons in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We analyse the existence, stability and dynamics of localized discrete modes with intrinsic vorticity S = 1 and S = 2 in the disc-shaped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate loaded into a deep two-dimensional optical lattice. The condensate, which features the interplay of local contact and nonlocal dipole-dipole (DD) interactions between atoms, is modelled by the 2D discrete Gross-Pitaevskii equation which includes the long-range DD term. Various species of discrete vortex solitons, which are known in the model of the condensate with local interactions, are found to exist in the presence of the DD interaction too. In locally self-attractive condensates, the isotropic DD repulsion, which corresponds to the orientation of atomic dipoles perpendicular to the confinement plane, helps to extend the region of the vortex stability, while in the case of anisotropic DD interactions, corresponding to the in-plane orientation of the dipoles, vortices are unstable. In the former case, those vortices which are unstable may evolve into robust ring-shaped breathers. The attractive isotropic DD interaction can create localized vortices in the condensate with the local self-repulsion, but they all are unstable, evolving into single-peak asymmetric structures.