We present a unified hydrodynamic approach for the sound propagation in the stripe phases realized in ultracold dipolar gas and spin-orbit-coupled BEC platforms at zero temperature. Despite the deep difference of the two platforms at a microscopic level, a similar hydrodynamic description can be formulated at a macroscopic level. The main difference between the two platforms is the lack of Galilean invariance in the spin-orbit case, resulting in a different identification of the normal (nonsuperfluid) component of the density, which leads to new terms in the equation for the current. In both cases the spectrum comprises two sounds, reflecting the spontaneous breaking of the U(1) and translational symmetries. Both sounds exhibit an anisotropic behavior. A comparison with the first and second sounds of the smectic-A liquid crystal is also presented.
Fermionic many-body systems provide a setting to investigate how interactions drive collective quantum behaviour, including macroscopic coherence and superfluidity. Central to these phenomena is the formation of Cooper pairs, correlated states of two fermions that behave as composite bosons and condense below a critical temperature. Unlike elementary bosons, these pairs retain an internal structure determined by the underlying fermionic correlations, which is essential for understanding superfluid properties across the crossover from Bose-Einstein condensation to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer crossover. Here we use a sonic analogue of the optical Sagnac effect to probe the composite nature of fermionic condensates across this crossover. We realize an in situ loop interferometer by coherently exciting two counter-propagating long-wavelength phonons of an annular fermionic superfluid with tuneable interactions. By injecting a quantized supercurrent into the superfluid ring, we lift the frequency degeneracy between clockwise and anticlockwise sound modes. The resulting Doppler shift allows us to probe the elementary quantum of circulation and the angular momentum per particle in the fermionic fluid. Our observations reveal that superflow circulation is quantized in units determined by fermion pairs, providing access to the superfluid fraction of the unitary Fermi gas in the low-temperature regime. Our results establish phonon interferometry as a probe of strongly correlated quantum systems.
By employing the formalism of hydrodynamics, we derive novel analytic predictions for the Doppler effect in superfluids with broken Galilean invariance and hosting persistent currents at zero temperature. We consider two scenarios: when Galilean invariance is broken explicitly (by external potentials) and spontaneously, as it happens in a supersolid. In the former case, the presence of a stationary current affects the propagation of sound via an anomalous Doppler term proportional to the density derivative of the superfluid fraction. In supersolids, where, according to Goldstone theorem, distinct sounds of hybrid superfluid and crystal nature can propagate, the Doppler effect can be very different for each sound. Quantitative estimates of the Doppler shifts are obtained for Bose-Einstein condensed atomic gases, described by Gross-Pitaevskii theory. The estimates are obtained both calculating the thermodynamic parameters entering the hydrodynamic results, and from full time-dependent simulations.
We show that two-component Bose-Einstein condensed mixtures, in presence of a persistent current, exhibit a non trivial Doppler shift of the sound velocities. The peculiarity is due to the inter-species interaction and the possibility of generating a counter-flow persistent current. Analytic predictions are derived by using superfluid hydrodynamics. While the existence of anomalous Doppler shifts at finite temperature has been discussed a long time ago in the case of superfluid Helium-4, an experimental verification of the effect is still missing. For this reason, we also propose a protocol for the measurement of the Doppler shifts, based on the density-density response function. The dynamical protocol is simulated by means of coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations.
Superfluidity describes the ability of quantum matter to flow without friction. Due to its fundamental role in many transport phenomena, it is crucial to understand the robustness of superfluid properties to external perturbations. Here, we theoretically study the effects of speckle disorder on the propagation of sound waves in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate at zero temperature. We numerically solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the presence of disorder and employ a superfluid hydrodynamic approach to elucidate the role of the compressibility and superfluid fraction in the propagation of sound. A key result is that disorder reduces the superfluid fraction and hence the speed of sound; it also introduces damping and mode coupling. In the limit of weak disorder, the predictions for the speed of sound and its damping rate are well reproduced by a quadratic perturbation theory. The hydrodynamic description is valid over a wide range of parameters, while discrepancies become evident if the disorder becomes too strong, the effect being more significant for disorder applied in only one spatial direction. Our predictions are well within the reach of state-of-the-art cold-atom experiments and carry over to more general disorder potentials.
The Heisenberg uncertainty inequality is used to derive a rigorous lower bound to the amount of isospin impurities in N=Z atomic nuclei, caused by the violation of isospin symmetry. The bound is fixed by the difference between the neutron and proton radii and the sum of the charge-exchange monopole strengths. It can be used to check the consistency of advanced many-body calculations accounting for the breaking of isospin symmetry. The uncertainty inequality is also employed to derive an upper bound to the isovector dipole moment in terms of the amount of isospin impurities, providing an insightful connection between the violation of parity and isospin symmetries.
We propose a protocol to excite the Goldstone modes of a supersolid dipolar Bose-Einstein condensed gas confined in a ring geometry. By abruptly removing an applied periodic modulation proportional to cos(φ), where φ is the azimuthal angle, we explore the resulting oscillations of the gas by solving the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The value of the two longitudinal sound velocities exhibited in the supersolid phase are analyzed using the hydrodynamic theory of supersolids at zero temperature, which explicitly takes into account both the superfluid and the crystal nature of the system. This approach allows for the determination of the layer compressibility modulus as well as of the superfluid fraction, f_{S}, in agreement with the Leggett estimate of the nonclassical moment of inertia.
We calculate the superfluid fraction of an interacting Fermi gas, in the presence of a one-dimensional periodic potential of strength $V_0$ and wave-vector $q$. Special focus is given to the unitary Fermi gas, characterized by the divergent behavior of the s-wave scattering length. Comparison with the Leggett's upper bound $(\langle n_{1D}\rangle <1/n_{1D}>)^{-1}$, with $n_{1D}$ the 1D column density, explicitly shows that, differently from the case of a dilute interacting Bose gas, the bound significantly overestimates the value of the superfluid fraction, except in the phonon regime of small $q$. Sum rule arguments show that the combined knowledge of the Leggett bound and of the actual value of the superfluid fraction allows for the determination of curvature effects providing the deviation of the dispersion of the Anderson-Bogoliubov mode from the linear phonon dependence. The comparison with the predictions of the weakly interacting BCS Fermi gas points out the crucial role of two-body interactions. The implications of our predictions on the anisotropic behavior of the sound velocity are also discussed.
At zero temperature, a Galilean-invariant Bose fluid is expected to be fully superfluid. Here we investigate theoretically and experimentally the quenching of the superfluid density of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate due to the breaking of translational (and thus Galilean) invariance by an external 1D periodic potential. Both Leggett's bound fixed by the knowledge of the total density and the anisotropy of the sound velocity provide a consistent determination of the superfluid fraction. The use of a large-period lattice emphasizes the important role of two-body interactions on superfluidity.
Can a gas behave like a crystal? Supersolidity is an intriguing and challenging state of matter which combines key features of superfluids and crystals. Predicted a long time ago, its experimental realization has been recently achieved in Bose-Einstein condensed (BEC) atomic gases inside optical resonators, spin-orbit coupled BEC's and atomic gases interacting with long range dipolar forces. The activity on dipolar gases has been particularly vibrant in the last few years. This perspective article summarizes the main experimental and theoretical achievements concerning supersolidity in the field of dipolar gases, like the observation of the density modulations caused by the spontaneous breaking of translational invariance, the effects of coherence and the occurrence of novel Goldstone modes. A series of important issues for the future experimental and theoretical research are outlined including, among others, the possible realization of quantized vortices inside these novel crystal structure, the role of dimensionality, the characterisation of the crystal properties and the nature of the phase transitions. At the end a brief overview on some other (mainly cold atomic) platforms, where supersolidity has been observed or where supersolidty is expected to emerge is provided.
Despite ground-breaking observations of supersolidity in spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates, until now the dynamics of the emerging spatially periodic density modulations has been vastly unexplored. Here, we demonstrate the nonrigidity of the density stripes in such a supersolid condensate and explore their dynamic behavior subject to spin perturbations. We show both analytically in infinite systems and numerically in the presence of a harmonic trap how spin waves affect the supersolid's density profile in the form of crystal waves, inducing oscillations of the periodicity as well as the orientation of the fringes. Both these features are well within reach of present-day experiments. Our results show that this system is a paradigmatic supersolid, featuring superfluidity in conjunction with a fully dynamic crystalline structure.
We study the scissors modes of a harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate under the influence of a synthetic magnetic field, which induces rigid rotational components in the velocity field. Our investigation reveals that the scissors mode, excited in the plane perpendicular to the synthetic magnetic field, becomes coupled to the quadrupole modes of the condensate, giving rise to typical beating effects. Moreover, the two scissors modes excited in the vertical planes are also coupled together by the synthetic magnetic field, resulting in intriguing gyroscope dynamics. Our analytical results, derived from a spinor hydrodynamic theory, are further validated through numerical simulations of the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation. These predictions for the condensates subject to a synthetic magnetic field are experimentally accessible with current cold-atom setups and hold promise for potential applications in quantum sensing.
When two Bose-Einstein condensates-labelled 1 and 2-overlap spatially, the equilibrium state of the system depends on the miscibility criterion for the two fluids. Here, we theoretically focus on the non-miscible regime in two spatial dimensions and explore the properties of the localized wave packet formed by the minority component 2 when immersed in an infinite bath formed by component 1. We address the zero-temperature regime and describe the two-fluid system by coupled classical field equations. We show that such a wave packet exists only for an atom number N (2) above a threshold value corresponding to the Townes soliton state. We identify the regimes where this localized state can be described by an effective single-field equation up to the droplet case, where component 2 behaves like an incompressible fluid. We study the near-equilibrium dynamics of the coupled fluids, which reveals specific parameter ranges for the existence of localized excitation modes.
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. Differently 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 ring-like configuration near the boundary of the box, reveling 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 one dimensional configurations. For sufficiently large values of the atom number also the bulk region can exhibit supersolidity, the resulting geometry reflecting the symmetry of the confining potential even for large systems.
We show that the knowledge of the time dependent response of a trapped gas, subject to a sudden rotation of a confining harmonic potential, allows for the determination of the moment of inertia of dipolar supersolid configurations. While in the presence of one-dimensional arrays of droplets the frequency of the resulting scissors oscillation provides accurate access to the value of the moment of inertia, two-dimensional like configurations are characterized by a multi-frequency structure in the rotating signal, reflecting the presence of significant rigid body components in the rotational motion. Using the formalism of response function theory and simulations based on the so-called extended time dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we point out the crucial role played by the low frequency components in the determination of the moment of inertia and of its deviations from the irrotational value. We also propose a protocol based on the stationary rotation of the trap, followed by its sudden stop, which might provide a promising alternative to the experimental evaluation of the moment of inertia.
Experiments on dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates have recently reported the observation of supersolidity. Although quantized vortices constitute a key probe of superfluidity, their observability in dipolar supersolids is largely prevented by the strong density depletion caused by the formation of droplets. We present a novel approach to the nucleation of vortices and their observation, based on the quenching of the s-wave scattering length across the superfluid-supersolid transition. Starting from a slowly rotating, vortex-free, configuration in the superfluid phase, we predict vortex nucleation as the system enters the supersolid phase, due to the strong reduction of the critical angular velocity in the supersolid. Once a vortex is created, we show that it is robustly preserved when the condensate is brought back to the superfluid phase, where it may be readily observed.