Supersolid edge and bulk phases of a dipolar quantum gas in a box

Year: 2022

Authors: Roccuzzo SM; Stringari S; Recati A.

Autors Affiliation: INO-CNR BEC Center and Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Trento, 38123 Povo, Italy and Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications, INFN, 38123, Trento, Italy

Abstract: We investigate the novel density distributions acquired by a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensed gas confined in a box potential, with special focus on the effects of supersolidity. Different from the case of harmonic trapping, the ground-state density reveals a strong depletion in the bulk region and an accumulation of atoms near the walls, well separated from the bulk, as a consequence of the competition between the attractive and the repulsive nature of the dipolar force. In a quasi-two-dimensional geometry characterized by cylindrical box trapping, we observe the emergence of a ringlike configuration near the boundary of the box, revealing peculiar supersolid and crystal effects in a useful range of parameters. In the case of square box trapping, the density oscillations along the edges, caused by the enhanced accumulation of atoms near the vertices, exhibit interesting analogies with the case of box-trapped quasi-one-dimensional configurations. For sufficiently large values of the atom number, the bulk region can also exhibit supersolidity, the resulting geometry reflecting the symmetry of the confining potential even for large systems.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH

Volume: 4 (1)      Pages from: 013086-1  to: 013086-7

More Information: Useful discussions with G. Modugno and the members of the Firenze-Pisa dipolar group are acknowledged. This project received funding from Provincia Autonoma di Trento, the Q@TN initiative and the FISh project of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, and the ItalianMIUR under the PRIN2017 Project CEnTraL.
KeyWords: collective excitations; scissors mode; superfluidity; breaking; helium
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.013086