  It is shown theoretically that a persistent current can be continuously
created in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of alkali atoms confined in a
multiply connected region by making use of a spin-degree of freedom of the
order parameter of a BEC. We demonstrate that this persistent current is easily
transformed into a vortex. Relaxation processes of these BEC after the
confining field is turned off are also studied so that our analyses are
compared with time of flight experiments. The results are shown to clearly
reflect the existence of a persistent current.
