Energy gaps and roton structure above the nu=1/2 Laughlin state of a rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensate.

Exact diagonalization study of a rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensate reveals that as the first vortex enters the system the degeneracy of the low-energy yrast spectrum is lifted and a large energy gap emerges. As more vortices enter with faster rotation, the energy gap decreases towards zero, but eventually the spectrum exhibits a rotonlike structure above the nu=1/2 Laughlin state without having a phonon branch despite the short-range nature of the interaction.