Spin-driven stationary turbulence in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We report the observation of stationary turbulence in antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates driven by a radio-frequency magnetic field. The magnetic driving injects energy into the system by spin rotation and the energy is dissipated via dynamic instability, resulting in the emergence of an irregular spin texture in the condensate. Under continuous driving, the spinor condensate evolves into a nonequilibrium steady state with characteristic spin turbulence, while the low-energy scale of spin excitations ensures that the sample's lifetime is minimally affected. When the driving strength is on par with the system's spin interaction energy and the quadratic Zeeman energy, remarkably, the stationary turbulent state exhibits spin-isotropic features in spin composition and spatial spin texture. We numerically show that ambient field fluctuations play a crucial role in sustaining the turbulent state within the system. These results open up different avenues for exploring quantum turbulence in spinor superfluid systems. © 2023 American Physical Society.