Dynamics of rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates in a harmonic plus quartic trap

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A two-dimensional rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic plus quartic trap is expected to have unusual vortex states that do not occur in a pure harmonic trap. At a critical rotation speed Ωₕ, a central hole appears in the condensate, and at some faster rotation speed Ωg, the system undergoes a transition to a giant vortex state with pure irrotational flow. Using a time-dependent variational analysis, we study the behavior of an annular condensate with a single concentric ring of vortices. The transition to a giant vortex state is investigated by comparing the energy of the two equilibrium states (the ring of vortices and the giant vortex) and also by studying the dynamical stability of small excitation modes of the ring of vortices.