Exotic ground states in a SU(3) spin-orbit coupled spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate under rotation

Abstract The ground states of a harmonically trapped spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) with SU(3) spin-orbit coupling (SOC) affected by the external rotation are investigated. The two-dimensional density, phase and magnetization distributions of the ground states under different parameter conditions are calculated numerically. It is found that a new kind of ground-states with clover-type structure in the density distribution of the condensate is induced by the external rotation. The vortex with one or several cores appears in the three parts of the structure once the angular frequency of the rotation is increased and passed over a critical value. The distribution of the vortex cores is also divided into three groups since all the holes in the density distribution are inlaid into the three parts. The total number of the holes is increased with the angular frequency of the rotation, the strengths of the SOC and the atomic density-density interaction. Together with the density distribution, the phase and magnetization distributions demonstrate the nontrivial topological characteristics of the states. Furthermore, when the rotation is closed abruptly, the states with vortex cores will rotate periodically in the coordinate space very long time without obvious decay.