Regularization of Vortex Core Size in Photon BECs due to Harmonic Trap: An Analytical Approach
Abstract
Quantized vortices are a hallmark of superfluidity. However, in a photon Bose--Einstein condensate, the photon-photon interaction is so weak that in a homogeneous system the healing length exceeds the experimentally achievable size of the condensate itself. Here we show that a harmonic confinement regularizes the vortex size to experimentally achievable scales. Moreover, such an external confinement closely resembles the standard experimental setup of a pumped dye-filled microcavity. We model the condensate via a complex Gross--Pitaevskii equation and obtain an approximate dynamical single-vortex solution by applying the recently proposed projection optimization method. The latter generalizes the variational approach of closed systems to open-dissipative systems without assuming a specific form for the condensate phase. The radial photon flow, which is characteristic for driven-dissipative systems, yields a definition of the vortex core size based on the competition of gain and loss. However, this condition reproduces the heuristic closed system definition now based on physical grounds. A subsequent linear stability analysis shows that interaction, as well as pumping and loss can drive the system to an unstable regime. In this way one can fundamentally distinguish between closed and open-dissipative systems.
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BibTeX
@misc{krauß2026regularization,
title = {{Regularization of Vortex Core Size in Photon BECs due to Harmonic Trap: An Analytical Approach}},
author = {Joshua Krauß and Tabitha Bates and Francisco Ednilson Alves dos Santos and Axel Pelster},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.28862},
eprint = {2608.28862},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28862},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Regularization of Vortex Core Size in Photon BECs due to Harmonic Trap: An Analytical Approach
AU - Joshua Krauß
AU - Tabitha Bates
AU - Francisco Ednilson Alves dos Santos
AU - Axel Pelster
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.28862
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28862
AB - Quantized vortices are a hallmark of superfluidity. However, in a photon Bose--Einstein condensate, the photon-photon interaction is so weak that in a homogeneous system the healing length exceeds the experimentally achievable size of the condensate itself. Here we show that a harmonic confinement regularizes the vortex size to experimentally achievable scales. Moreover, such an external confinement closely resembles the standard experimental setup of a pumped dye-filled microcavity. We model the condensate via a complex Gross--Pitaevskii equation and obtain an approximate dynamical single-vortex solution by applying the recently proposed projection optimization method. The latter generalizes the variational approach of closed systems to open-dissipative systems without assuming a specific form for the condensate phase. The radial photon flow, which is characteristic for driven-dissipative systems, yields a definition of the vortex core size based on the competition of gain and loss. However, this condition reproduces the heuristic closed system definition now based on physical grounds. A subsequent linear stability analysis shows that interaction, as well as pumping and loss can drive the system to an unstable regime. In this way one can fundamentally distinguish between closed and open-dissipative systems.
ER -