Stripe formation in Bose-Einstein condensates with large numbers of vortices

We analyze recent experiments at JILA, which observe periodic formation of stripes in a rotating Bose condensate [Engels et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 100403 (2002)], and explain this behavior as a consequence of kinetic energy driven evolution, where the vortices follow a quadrupolar flow. We demonstrate that the structure of vortex lattices in the lowest Landau level is a useful tool for understanding such complex phenomena, even when the system is not in the quantum Hall regime.