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arXiv:1910.08434 · Physical Review A

Bound-state spectrum of an impurity in a quantum vortex

João E. H. Braz, Hugo Terças

Published Feb 14, 2020• 5 citations
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Abstract

We consider the problem of finding the bound-state spectrum of an impurity immersed in a weakly interacting two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate supporting a single vortex. We obtain approximate expressions for the energy levels and show that, due to the finite size of the condensate, the impurity can access only a finite number of physical bound states. By virtue of the topological quantization of the vorticity and of the emergence of the Tkachenko lattice, this system is promising as a robust and scalable platform for the realization of qubits. Moreover, it provides a potentially new paradigm for polaron physics in Bose-Einstein condensates and a glimpse towards the study of quantum turbulence in low-dimensionality systems.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.101.023607

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We consider the problem of finding the bound-state spectrum of an impurity immersed in a weakly interacting two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate supporting a single vortex. We obtain approximate expressions for the energy levels and show that, due to the finite size of the condensate, the impurity can access only a finite number of physical bound states. By virtue of the topological quantization of the vorticity and of the emergence of the Tkachenko lattice, this system is promising as a robust and scalable platform for the realization of qubits. Moreover, it provides a potentially new paradigm for polaron physics in Bose-Einstein condensates and a glimpse towards the study of quantum turbulence in low-dimensionality systems.
We investigate the properties of a neutral impurity atom coupled with the Tkachenko modes of a two-dimensional vortex lattice in a Bose-Einstein condensate. In contrast with polarons in homogeneous condensates, the marginal impurity-boson interaction in the vortex lattice leads to infrared singularities in perturbation theory and to the breakdown of the quasiparticle picture in the low-energy limit. These infrared singularities are interpreted in terms of a renormalization of the coupling constant, quasiparticle weight, and effective impurity mass. The divergence of the effective mass in the low-energy limit gives rise to a power-law singularity in the impurity spectral function and provides an example of an emergent orthogonality catastrophe in a bosonic system.
We characterize the low-lying excitations of a quantum vortex in a quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) using the standard definition of the density of states (DOS) and a modified version that is sensitive to complementary aspects of the excitation's spectrum. The latter proves to be particularly relevant to studying the polaronic state realized when an impurity is embedded in a quantum vortex. We establish that the impurity becomes sensitive to the transversal fluctuations of the vortex, via its remnant kelvon mode, and to the phase fluctuations of the BEC Nambu-Goldstone mode. The presence of the vortex yields an anomalous excitation spectrum with a finite energy gap and nonlinear DOS at low energies. We find that the high sensitivity of the kelvon mode to external potentials provides a quantum-level control channel over impurities trapped in a vortex. This extra control channel may be of practical use for the proposal of using vortex-trapped impurities as qubit units for quantum information processing.
This thesis investigates the behaviour of a quantum impurity coupled to a Bose–Einstein condensate. The condensate dynamics are described by the Gross–Pitaevskii equation, while the impurity is modelled by a coupled Schrödinger equation, forming a Gross–Clark-system. The work focuses on impurity localisation, vortex structure, and the dynamical consequences of impurity-condensate coupling in effectively two-dimensional geometries. The thesis begins by establishing the Gross–Pitaevskii model and its dimensionless formulation, together with the structure and stability of quantised vortices. Both numerical and approximate analytical descriptions of vortex profiles are developed and used throughout the thesis. The localisation of impurities is then examined in a range of static settings, including idealised trapping potentials and vortex cores, revealing how condensate density depletion can generate effective confinement for the impurity. Self-consistent impurity-vortex bound states are obtained by solving coupled stationary equations. The spectrum of localised impurity states is analysed, and the dependence of localisation on interaction parameters and angular momentum is characterised. These static results provide the foundation for subsequent dynamical studies. Real-time simulations are used to investigate the stability of impurity-bound configurations. For singly quantised vortices, impurity ground states are shown to be dynamically robust, while excited impurity states relax under time evolution despite remaining localised. A quantitative overlap measure is introduced to characterise the dynamical stability of impurity states. The thesis then examines multiply quantised vortices, demonstrating that impurity coupling can modify vortex dynamics and, in certain cases, suppress intrinsic instabilities. Overall, this work provides a systematic analysis of impurity localisation and impurity–vortex interactions in Bose-Einstein condensates, combining theoretical modelling, numerical methods, and dynamical simulations to clarify the role of impurities in coupled quantum fluids.
We investigate the properties of a neutral impurity atom coupled with the Tkachenko modes of a two-dimensional vortex lattice Bose-Einstein condensate. In contrast with polarons in homogeneous condensates, the marginal impurity-boson interaction in the vortex lattice leads to infrared singularities in perturbation theory and to the breakdown of the quasiparticle picture in the low energy limit. These infrared singularities are interpreted in terms of a renormalization of the coupling constant, quasiparticle weight and effective impurity mass. The divergence of the effective mass in the low energy limit gives rise to an orthogonality catastrophe which is manifested as a power law singularity in the impurity spectral function.
Two-dimensional quantum gases provide a distinctive setting in which enhanced thermal fluctuations, finite-size effects, and two-body bound-state formation are intrinsically intertwined. In this work, we study a single attractive impurity immersed in a finite, weakly interacting two-dimensional Bose gas, where finite size stabilizes a nonzero condensate fraction by introducing an infrared momentum scale, thereby enabling a Bogoliubov description of the bath. Using a hybrid approach that combines finite-temperature many-body scattering theory with input from path-integral Monte Carlo, we analyze the impurity quasiparticle energy across the condensate and normal regimes. The infrared scale generates a phonon-activation temperature below which the impurity energy remains nearly temperature independent. Once the resolved phonon modes become thermally populated, their contribution competes with condensate depletion, producing a nonmonotonic temperature dependence of the polaron energy. These results suggest that attractive Bose polarons may serve as sensitive probes of finite-size thermal fluctuations, phonon dressing, and bound-state physics in low-dimensional Bose gases.
We propose a spectroscopic method to detect vortex proliferation in neutral superfluids that does not require spatially resolving individual vortices. Using stochastic classical-field methods, we theoretically show that a quantum impurity repulsively coupled to a weakly interacting Bose gas at finite temperature carries direct spectroscopic signatures of vortex proliferation. In two dimensions, we find that a low-energy (attractive) branch in the excitation spectrum becomes prominent when the temperature is tuned across the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition. We explain this red-shifted resonance as originating from the binding of the impurity to vortices, where the bosons density (and hence, the repulsive Hartree energy) is reduced. This mechanism could be exploited to spectroscopically estimate the BKT transition in excitonic insulators. In contrast, in three dimensions, the impurity spectra reflect the presence of vortex rings well below the condensation temperature, and herald the presence of a thermal gas above the Bose-Einstein transition. Importantly, we expect our results to have impact on the understanding of Bose-polaron formation at finite temperatures.