Vortex energy and vortex bending for a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate

For a Bose-Einstein condensate placed in a rotating trap, we give a simplified expression of the Gross-Pitaevskii energy in the Thomas Fermi regime, which only depends on the number and shape of the vortex lines. Then we check numerically, that when there is one vortex line, our simplified expression leads to solutions with a bent vortex for a range of rotational velocities and trap parameters that are consistent with the experiments.