Ground-states and rotational properties of a spin–orbit-coupled spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate in a concentrically coupled toroidal trap

Abstract We investigate the ground states of an antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate with spin–orbit coupling in a concentrically coupled toroidal trap. A new necklace-type state with double-ring structure is created in the system due to the spin–orbit coupling. The petal number of the necklace state is increased with enhancing the strength of the spin–orbit coupling. When the rotation is introduced, the condensate can be dragged into the outer trough of the trap by increasing the rotation frequency, which makes it possible to realize the exotic ground state combined by the necklace state at the inner trough and the persistent flow at the outer one. Once the two troughs of the toroidal trap are populated by the persistent flow at the specific effective interactions between atoms, the hidden vortices may occur in the central region of the trap and at the barrier between the two troughs. In addition, the visible vortex with the laminar structure can be generated under the more effective atomic interaction.