Tuning the critical current in toroidal superfluids via controllable impurities
Abstract
We combine numerical and experimental approaches to study how impurities affect the maximum superflow in an annular Bose-Einstein condensate. By tuning the impurity density and radial position, we precisely control persistent-current stability: it increases with the number of impurities and when impurities are placed at larger radii. In the unstable regime, the complex vortex motion within the impurity landscape, characterized by pinning and unpinning events, governs the timescale of the current decay and its final value. Our work establishes atomic superfluids as a pristine platform for exploring universal mechanisms of superflow stabilization and decay, paving the way for atomtronic quantum technologies.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism
Quantum
superfluid
helium dynamics
Iron-based superconductors research
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical Review A
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 5
- Publication date
- 20 April 2026
- Language
- EN