Abstract

With use of the nonlinear Schroedinger (or Gross-Pitaevskii) equation with strong repulsive cubic nonlinearity, dynamics of multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with a harmonic trap in two dimensions is investigated beyond the Thomas-Fermi regime. In the case when each component has a single vortex, we obtain an effective nonlinear dynamics for vortex cores (particles). The particles here acquire the inertia, in marked contrast to the standard theory of point vortices widely known in the usual hydrodynamics. The effective dynamics is equivalent to that of charged particles under a strong spring force and in the presence of Lorentz force with the uniform magnetic field. The interparticle (vortex-vortex) interaction is singularly repulsive and short ranged with its magnitude decreasing with increasing distance of the center of mass from the trapping center. “Chaos in the three-body problem” in the three-vortice system can be seen, which is not expected in the corresponding point vortices without inertia in two dimensions.