Vortex Lattice Formation in a Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensate

Spin up a harmonically trapped atomic BEC past its critical rotation rate and quantized vortices nucleate at the condensate's edge, each carrying exactly one quantum of circulation h/m as required by the single-valuedness of the macroscopic wavefunction. This simulator integrates a regularized point-vortex model — mutual Biot-Savart interactions, an image-vortex boundary condition, and mutual friction against the thermal cloud — so the vortices migrate inward and self-organize into the triangular Abrikosov lattice predicted by Gross-Pitaevskii theory, with the equilibrium vortex number set purely by Feynman's rule n_v = 2mΩ/h. A six-fold bond-orientational order parameter tracks the crystallization live as you tune the stirring rate, dissipation, and vortex core size.