Stationary states, dynamical stability, and vorticity of Bose-Einstein condensates in tilted rotating harmonic traps

Abstract: We theoretically investigate a Bose-Einstein condensate confined by a rotating harmonic trap whose rotation axis is not aligned with any of its principal axes. The principal axes of the Thomas-Fermi density profiles of the resulting stationary solutions are found to be tilted with respect to those of the rotating trap, representing an extra degree of freedom that is associated with the existence of additional branches of stationary solutions for any given rotation axis alignment. By linearizing the time-dependent theory about the stationary states, we obtain a semi-analytical prediction of their dynamical instability at high rotation frequencies against collective modes arising from environmental perturbations. Comparing the stationary states to direct simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we predict the nucleation of quantum vortices in the dynamically unstable rotational regime. These vortex lines are aligned along the rotation axis despite the tilting of the rotating trap although the background density profile is tilted with respect to the trapping and rotation axes.