The giant vortex state for a Bose-Einstein condensate in a rotating anharmonic trap: Extreme rotation regimes

We study the fast rotation limit for a Bose-Einstein condensate in a quadratic plus quartic confining potential within the framework of the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional. As the rotation speed tends to infinity with a proper scaling of the other parameters in the model, a linear limit problem appears for which we are able to derive precise energy estimates. We prove that the energy and density asymptotics of the problem can be obtained by minimizing a simplified one-dimensional energy functional. In the case of a fixed coupling constant we also prove that a giant vortex state appears. It is an annulus with pure irrotational flow encircling a central low-density hole around which there is a macroscopic phase circulation. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.