Critical Velocity for Vortex Shedding in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

We present measurements of the critical velocity for vortex shedding in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate with a moving repulsive Gaussian laser beam. As a function of the barrier height $V_0$, the critical velocity $v_c$ shows a dip structure having a minimum at $V_0 \approx μ$, where $μ$ is the chemical potential of the condensate. At fixed $V_0\approx 7μ$, we observe that the ratio of $v_c$ to the speed of sound $c_s$ monotonically increases for decreasing $σ/ξ$, where $σ$ is the beam width and $ξ$ is the condensate healing length. The measured upper bound for $v_c/c_s$ is about 0.4, which is in good agreement with theoretical predictions for a two-dimensional superflow past a circular cylinder. We explain our results with the density reduction effect of the soft boundary of the Gaussian obstacle, based on the local Landau criterion for superfluidity.

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