Effect of the thermal gas component on the stability of vortices in trapped Bose–Einstein condensates

We study the stability of vortices in trapped single-component Bose–Einstein condensates within self-consistent mean-field theories; in particular, we consider the Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov–Popov theory and its recently proposed gapless extensions. It is shown that for sufficiently repulsively interacting systems the anomalous negative-energy modes related to vortex instabilities are lifted to positive energies due to partial filling of the vortex core with noncondensed gas. Such behaviour implies that within these theories the vortex states are eventually stable against the transfer of condensate matter to the anomalous core modes. This self-stabilization of vortices, shown to occur under very general circumstances, is contrasted to the predictions of the non-self-consistent Bogoliubov approximation, which is known to exhibit anomalous modes for all vortex configurations and thus implying instability of these states. In addition, the shortcomings of these approximations in describing the properties of vortices are analysed, and the need for a self-consistent theory taking properly into account the coupled dynamics of the condensate and the noncondensate atoms is emphasized.