Example of a quantum anomaly in the physics of ultracold gases

In this Letter, we propose an experimental scheme for the observation of a quantum anomaly-quantum-mechanical symmetry breaking-in a two-dimensional harmonically trapped Bose gas. The anomaly manifests itself in a shift of the monopole excitation frequency away from the value dictated by the Pitaevskii-Rosch dynamical symmetry. While the corresponding classical Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the hydrodynamic equations derived from it do exhibit this symmetry, it is-as we show in our paper-violated under quantization. The resulting frequency shift is of the order of 1% of the carrier, well in reach for modern experimental techniques. We propose using the dipole oscillations as a frequency gauge.