Scissors mode of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate

A scissors mode of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The condensate is confined in an axisymmetric harmonic trap, superimposed with a small rotating deformation. For angular velocities larger than ${\omega }_{\perp }/\sqrt{2},$ where ${\omega }_{\perp }$ is the radial trap frequency, the frequency of the scissors mode is predicted to vanish like the square root of the deformation, due to the tendency of the system to exhibit spontaneous rotational symmetry breaking. Measurements of the frequency confirm the predictions of theory. Accompanying characteristic oscillations of the internal shape of the condensate are also calculated and observed experimentally.