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Chiral Supersolid in Spin-Orbit-Coupled Bose Gases with Soft-Core Long-Range Interactions
Wei Han1,2, Xiao-Fei Zhang1,2, Deng-Shan Wang3
1Key Laboratory of Time and Frequency Primary Standards, National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710600, China.
Physical Review Letters
|August 8, 2018
Summary
Researchers discovered a new chiral supersolid phase in ultracold atomic gases. This phase breaks chiral symmetry, spontaneously generating particle currents and angular momentum without rotation or magnetic fields.
Area of Science:
- Quantum physics
- Condensed matter physics
- Atomic physics
Background:
- Chirality, a form of symmetry breaking, is crucial in many scientific fields.
- Spin-orbit coupling in ultracold atomic gases offers new ways to explore chiral quantum states.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the emergence of exotic phases in ultracold atomic gases with spin-orbit coupling and interatomic interactions.
- To demonstrate the spontaneous generation of angular momentum and particle currents due to broken chiral symmetry.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis of ultracold atomic gases with combined spin-orbit coupling and soft-core interactions.
- Investigating phase transitions and emergent properties under specific interaction conditions.
Main Results:
- A novel chiral supersolid phase is predicted, characterized by broken chiral symmetry.
- Spontaneous emergence of circulating particle currents and finite angular momentum without external rotation or magnetic fields.
- Tunable angular momentum direction by adjusting spin-orbit coupling or interatomic interaction strength.
Conclusions:
- The study predicts an experimentally observable chiral supersolid phase in Rydberg-dressed Bose-Einstein condensates.
- This work opens new avenues for studying quantum phenomena related to chirality and symmetry breaking in atomic systems.
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