Quantum droplets can emerge in bosonic binary magnetic gases (BMGs) from the interplay of short- and long-ranged interactions, and quantum fluctuations. We develop an extended meanfield theory for this system and use it to predict equilibrium and dynamical properties of BMG droplets. We present a phase diagram and characterize miscible and immiscible droplet states. We also show that a single component self-bound droplet can be used to bind another magnetic component which is not in the droplet regime. Our results should be realizable in experiments with mixtures of highly-magnetic lanthanide atoms.
We study the quantum-droplet state in a 3-dimensional (3D) Bose gas in the presence of 1D spin-orbit-coupling and Raman coupling, especially the stripe phase with density modulation, by numerically computing the ground state energy including the mean-field energy and Lee-HuangYang correction. In this droplet state, the stripe can exist in a wider range of Raman coupling, compared with the BEC-gas state. More intriguingly, both spin-orbit-coupling and Raman coupling strengths can be used to tune the droplet density.
We show that the ground state of a dipolar Bose gas in a cylindrically symmetric harmonic trap has a rich phase diagram, including droplet crystal states in which a set of droplets arrange into a lattice pattern that breaks the rotational symmetry. An analytic model for small droplet crystals is developed and used to obtain a zero temperature phase diagram that is numerically validated. We show that in certain regimes a coherent low-density halo surrounds the droplet crystal giving rise to a novel phase with localized and extended features.
We develop two approximate theories to describe the miscible and immiscible droplets that can occur in a binary mixture of highly magnetic bosonic atoms. In addition to allowing simpler calculations, the approximate theories provide insight into the role of quantum fluctuations in the two regimes. Results are validated by comparison to those from the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation. As an application we solve for the ground state droplets crossing the miscible-immiscible transition as function of the short-ranged interspecies interaction parameter. We consider regimes where the transition o…
In a binary quantum droplet, the interspecies attraction dominates over the intraspecies repulsions and the mean-field energy is unstable. The mechanical stability is restored by the repulsive Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) energy [1]. In the Bogoliubov theory of the binary quantum droplet, there are two branches of gapless excitations. The lower branch describes the phonon excitation and its energy is imaginary in the long-wavelength limit, implying dynamical instability. Recently it is found that the phonon energy is renormalized by higher-order quantum fluctuations and the dynamical instability is re…
In this work, we present the study of the stationary structures and the breathing mode behavior of a two-dimensional self-bound binary Bose droplet. We employ an analytical approach using a variational ansatz with a super-Gaussian trial order parameter and compare it with the numerical solutions of the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We find that the super-Gaussian is superior to the often used Gaussian ansatz in describing the stationary and dynamical properties of the system. We find that for sufficiently large non-rotating droplets the breathing mode is energetically favourable compared…
We study the beyond-mean-field corrections to the energy of a dipolar Bose gas confined to two dimensions by a box potential with dipoles oriented in plane. At a critical strength of the dipolar interaction the system becomes unstable on the mean field level. We find that the ground state of the gas is strongly influenced by the corrections, leading to formation of a self-bound droplet, in analogy to the free space case. Properties of the droplet state can be found by minimizing the extended Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional. In the limit of strong confinement we show analytically that the co…
We calculate analytically the quantum and thermal fluctuations corrections of a dilute quasi-two-dimensional Bose-condensed dipolar gas. We show that these fluctuations may change their character from repulsion to attraction in the density-temperature plane owing to the striking momentum dependence of the dipole-dipole interactions. The dipolar instability is halted by such unconventional beyond mean field corrections leading to the formation of a droplet phase. The equilibrium features and coherence properties exhibited by such droplets are deeply discussed. At finite temperature, we find tha…
Stabilized by quantum fluctuations, dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates can form self-bound liquidlike droplets in the mean-field unstable regime. However in the Bogoliubov theory, some phonon energies are imaginary in the long-wavelength limit, implying dynamical instability of this system. A similar instability appears in the Bogoliubov theory of a binary quantum droplet, and is removed due to higher-order quantum fluctuations as shown recently [1]. In this work, we study the phonon energy of a dipolar quantum droplet in the Beliaev formalism, and find that quantum fluctuations can enhance the…
We theoretically investigate the droplets formation in a tightly trapped one-dimensional dipolar gas of bosonic atoms. When the strength of the dipolar interaction becomes sufficiently attractive compared to the contact one, we show how a solitonic-like density profile evolves into a liquid-like droplet on increasing the number of particles in the trap. The incipient gas-liquid transition is also signalled by a steep increase of the breathing mode and a change in sign of the chemical potential. Upon a sudden release of the trap, varying the number of trapped atoms and the scattering length, th…
We look into dark solitons in a quasi-1D dipolar Bose gas and in a quantum droplet. We derive the analytical solitonic solution of a Gross-Pitaevskii-like equation accounting for beyond mean-field effects. The results show there is a certain critical value of the dipolar interactions, for which the width of a motionless soliton diverges. Moreover, there is a peculiar solution of the motionless soliton with a non-zero density minimum. We also present the energy spectrum of these solitons with an additional excitation subbranch appearing. Finally, we perform a series of numerical experiments rev…
Self-bound quantum droplets form when the mean-field tendency of the gas to collapse is stabilized by the effectively repulsive beyond mean-field fluctuations. The beyond mean-field effects depend on Rabi-frequency $ω_R$ and quadratic Zeeman effect $q$ for the Rabi-coupled Bose mixtures and the spinor gases, respectively. The effects of varying $ω_R$ and $q$ on the quantum droplet have recently been examined for unpolarized Rabi-coupled Bose mixture with zero detuning $δ= 0$ and unpolarized spinor gas with $\langle F_z \rangle=0$. In this paper, we theoretically explore the stability of the dr…
We theoretically study dynamical formation of a quantum droplet in a two-component Bose-Hubbard system with an external trap potential. Specifically, the superfluid in the central region surrounded by the Mott insulator with double filling forms a quantum droplet, which is self-bound thanks to the discontinuous nature of the quantum phase transition between the two phases. We show how to induce the characteristic behavior of the droplet through the control of the trap potential by using the time-dependent Gutzwiller simulations in a two-dimensional system. The static and dynamical properties o…
Borromean ring refers to a peculiar structure where three rings are linked together while any two of them are unlinked. Here we propose the realization of its quantum mechanical analog in a many-body system of three-component ultracold bosons. Namely, we identify the {\it Borromean droplet}, where only the ternary bosons can form a self-bound droplet while any binary subsystems cannot. Its formation is facilitated by an additional attractive force induced by the density fluctuation of a third component, which enlarges the mean-field collapse region in comparison to the binary case and renders …
Rabi-coupling-induced three-component quantum droplet in ultracold Bose gases
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所凝聚态物理国家实验室）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）；Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong（香港中文大学物理系）
Self-trapped droplets stabilized by quantum fluctuations have been experimentally realized in dipolar gases and binary Boson mixtures. We propose spinor Bose gases as another candidate for droplet formation in this work. For spin-1 gas, we find that spin fluctuations give a dilute but self-trapped state for two different order parameters where the mean-field picture predicts collapse. A polar droplet phase can be stabilized by spin fluctuations for both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic spin-dependent coupling. An antiferromagnetic droplet phase can be stabilized similarly with a negative qu…
An ultradilute quantum droplet is a self-bound liquid-like state recently observed in ultracold Bose-Einstein condensates. In all previous theoretical studies, it is described by a phenomenological low-energy effective theory, termed as the extended Gross\textendash Pitaevskii equation. Here, we microscopically derive the Gross\textendash Pitaevskii equation for the condensate and also for a pairing field in an inhomogeneous quantum droplet realized by Bose-Bose mixtures with attractive inter-species interaction. We show that the inclusion of the pairing field is essential, in order to have a …
Quantum droplets may form out of a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate, stabilized by quantum fluctuations beyond mean field. We show that multiple singly-quantized vortices may form in these droplets at moderate angular momenta in two dimensions. Droplets carrying these precursors of an Abrikosov lattice remain self-bound for certain timescales after switching off an initial harmonic confinement. Furthermore, we examine how these vortex-carrying droplets can be formed in a more pertubation-resistant setting, by starting from a rotating binary Bose-Einstein condensate and inducing a metastable pe…
We study the collective modes of a binary Bose mixture across the soliton to droplet crossover in a quasi one dimensional waveguide with a beyond-mean-field equation of state and a variational Gaussian ansatz for the scalar bosonic field of the corresponding effective action. We observe a sharp difference in the collective modes in the two regimes. Within the soliton regime modes vary smoothly upon the variation of particle number or interaction strength. On the droplet side collective modes are inhibited by the emission of particles. This mechanism turns out to be dominant for a wide range of…
We analyze some issues related to the stability and free expansion of a one-dimensional logarithmic Bose-Einstein condensate, particularly its eventual relation to the formation of quantum droplet-type configurations. We prove that the corresponding properties, such as the energy of the associated N-body ground state, differ substantially with respect to its three-dimensional counterpart. Consequently, the free velocity expansion also shows differences with respect to the three-dimensional system when logarithmic interactions are taken into account. The one-dimensional logarithmic condensate t…
Quantum droplets are ultradilute liquid states which emerge from the competitive interplay of two Hamiltonian terms, the mean-field energy and beyond-mean-field correction, in a weakly interacting binary Bose gas. We relate the formation of droplets in symmetric and asymmetric two-component one-dimensional boson systems to the modulational instability of a spatially uniform state driven by the beyond-mean-field term. Asymmetry between the components may be caused by their unequal populations or unequal intra-component interaction strengths. Stability of both symmetric and asymmetric droplets i…
Ultradilute quantum droplets are intriguing new state of matter, in which the attractive mean-field force can be balanced by the repulsive force from quantum fluctuations to avoid collapse. Here, we present a microscopic theory of ultradilute quantum droplets in three-, one- and two-dimensional two-component Bose-Bose mixtures, by generalizing the conventional Bogoliubov theory to include the bosonic pairing arising from the interspecies attraction. Our pairing theory is fully equivalent to a variational approach and hence gives an upper bound for the energy of quantum droplets. In three dimen…
Breakdown of the single-mode description of ultradilute quantum droplets in binary Bose mixtures: A perspective from a microscopic bosonic pairing theory
Quantum droplets have been realized in experiments on binary boson mixtures and dipolar Bose gases. In these systems, the mean-field energy of the Bose-Einstein condensation is attractive, and the repulsive Lee-Huang-Yang energy is crucial for stability. The Bogoliubov theory incorrectly predicts that the phonon mode is dynamically unstable in the long-wavelength limit. In this work, we go beyond the Bogoliubov theory to study how the phonon mode is stabilized in the quantum droplet of a binary boson mixture. Similar to Beliaev's approach to a single-component Bose gas, we compute higher-order…
We demonstrate the existence of quantum droplets in two-component one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard chains. The droplets exist for any strength of repulsive intra-species interactions provided they are balanced by comparable attractive inter-species interactions. The ground-state phase diagram is presented and the different phases are characterized by examining the density profile and off-diagonal one- and two-body correlation functions. A rich variety of phases is found, including atomic superfluid gases, atomic superfluid droplets, pair superfluid droplets, pair superfluid gases and a Mott-insula…
While quantum fluctuations in binary mixtures of bosonic atoms with short-range interactions can lead to the formation of a self-bound droplet, for equal intra-component interactions but an unequal number of atoms in the two components, there is an excess part that cannot bind to the droplet. Imposing confinement, as here through periodic boundary conditions in a one-dimensional setting, the droplet becomes amalgamated with a residual condensate. The rotational properties of this compound system reveal simultaneous rigid-body and superfluid behavior in the ground state and uncover that the res…
Breakthrough experiments have newly explored the fascinating physics of dipolar quantum droplets and supersolids. The recent realization of dipolar mixtures opens further intriguing possibilities. We show that under rather general conditions, the presence of a second component catalyzes droplet nucleation and supersolidity in an otherwise unmodulated condensate. Droplet catalyzation in miscible mixtures, which may occur even for a surprisingly small impurity doping, results from a local roton instability triggered by the doping-dependent modification of the effective dipolar strength. The cata…
A novel supersolid phase is predicted for an ensemble of Rydberg atoms in the dipole-blockade regime, interacting via a repulsive dipolar potential "softened" at short distances. Using exact numerical techniques, we study the low temperature phase diagram of this system, and observe an intriguing phase consisting of a crystal of mesoscopic superfluid droplets. At low temperature, phase coherence throughout the whole system, and the ensuing bulk superfluidity, are established through tunnelling of identical particles between neighbouring droplets.
We study the quantum fluctuations in the condensates of a mixture of bosonic atoms and molecules with interspecies p-wave interaction. Our analysis shows that the quantum phase of coexisting atomic and molecular condensates is unstable at the mean-field level. Unlike the mixture of s-wave interaction, the Lee-Huang-Yang correction of p-wave interaction is unexpectedly found here to exhibit an opposite sign with respect to its mean-field term above a critical particle density. This quantum correction to the mean-field energy provides a remarkable mechanism to self-stabilize the phase. The order…
Laser induced transitions between internal states of atoms have been playing a fundamental role to manipulate atomic clouds for many decades. In absence of interactions each atom behaves independently and their coherent quantum dynamics is described by the Rabi model. Since the experimental observation of Bose condensation in dilute gases, static and dynamical properties of multicomponent quantum gases have been extensively investigated. Moreover, at very low temperatures quantum fluctuations crucially affect the equation of state of many-body systems. Here we study the effects of quantum fluc…
We demonstrate the existence of a new type of spatially localized excitations in the unitary Fermi gas: spin polarized droplets with a peculiar internal structure involving the abrupt change of the pairing phase at the surface of the droplet. It resembles the structure of the Josephson-$π$ junction occurring when a slice of a ferromagnet is sandwiched between two superconductors. The stability of the impurity is enhanced by the mutual interplay between the polarization effects and the pairing field, resulting in an exceptionally long-lived state. The prospects for its realization in experiment…
We investigate the formation of self-bound quantum droplets in a one-dimensional binary mixture of bosonic atoms, applying the method of numerical diagonalization of the full Hamiltonian. The excitation spectra and ground-state pair correlations signal the formation of a few-boson droplet when crossing the region of critical inter-species interactions. The self-binding affects the rotational excitations, displaying a change in the energy dispersion from negative curvature, associated with superfluidity in the many-body limit, to a nearly parabolic curvature indicative of rigid body rotation. W…
We systematically investigate the ground-state properties of self-bound droplets of quasi-two-dimensional binary Bose gases by using the Gaussian state theory. We find that quantum droplets consists two macroscopic squeezed phases and a macroscopic coherent phase. We map out the phase diagram and determine all phase boundaries via both numerical and nearly analytical methods. In particular, we find three easily accessible signatures for the quantum phases and the stablization mechanism of the self-bound droplets by precisely measuring their radial size. Our studies indicate that binary droplet…
Quantum fluctuations are the origin of genuine quantum many-body effects, and can be neglected in classical mean-field phenomena. Here we report on the observation of stable quantum droplets containing $\sim$ 800 atoms which are expected to collapse at the mean-field level due to the essentially attractive interaction. By systematic measurements on individual droplets we demonstrate quantitatively that quantum fluctuations stabilize them against the mean-field collapse. We observe in addition interference of several droplets indicating that this stable many-body state is phase coherent.
The structure and dynamics of one-dimensional binary Bose gases forming quantum droplets is studied by solving the corresponding amended Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Two physically different regimes are identified, corresponding to small droplets of an approximately Gaussian shape and large `puddles' with a broad flat-top plateau. Small droplets collide quasi-elastically, featuring the soliton-like behavior. On the other hand, large colliding droplets may merge or suffer fragmentation, depending on their relative velocity. The frequency of a breathing excited state of droplets, as predicted by t…
Droplet impact on a surface is practically relevant to a variety of fields in nature and industry, while a complete control of its outcomes remains challenging due to various unmanageable factors. In this work, we propose the quantum simulation of droplet impact outcomes in the platform of ultracold atoms. Specifically, we study the quantum-fluctuation-driven dynamics (QFDD) of two-dimensional Bose-Bose mixtures from an initial Townes soliton towards the formation of a quantum droplet. By tuning the fluctuation energy of the initial Townes state through its size and number, the subsequent QFDD…
Moiré droplet of ultracold Bose gases in a twisted-bilayer optical lattice
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所凝聚态物理国家实验室）；Department of Basic Courses, Naval University of Engineering（海军工程大学基础部）；State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Opto-Electronics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University（山西大学光电工程学院量子光学与光量子器件国家重点实验室极端光学协同创新中心）
The existence and stability of domain walls (DWs) and bubble-droplet (BD) states in binary mixtures of quasi-one-dimensional ultracold Bose gases with inter- and intra-species repulsive interactions is considered. Previously, DWs were studied by means of coupled systems of Gross-Pitaevskii equations (GPEs) with cubic terms, which model immiscible binary Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). We address immiscible BECs with two- and three-body repulsive interactions, as well as binary Tonks--Girardeau (TG) gases, using systems of GPEs with cubic and quintic nonlinearities for the binary BEC, and cou…
