Roton excitations in a trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We consider the quasiparticle excitations of a trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. By mapping these excitations onto linear and angular momentum we show that the roton modes are clearly revealed as discrete fingers in parameter space, whereas the other modes form a smooth surface. We examine the properties of the roton modes and characterize how they change with the dipole interaction strength. We demonstrate how the application of a perturbing potential can be used to engineer angular rotons, i.e., allowing us to controllably select modes of nonzero projection of angular momentum to become the lowest energy rotons. © 2013 American Physical Society.