A two-dimensional quantum system of dipoles, with a polarization angle not perpendicular to the plane, shows a transition from a gas to a stripe phase. We have studied the thermal properties of these two phases using the path-integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) method. By simulating the thermal density matrix, PIMC provides exact results for magnitudes of interest such as the superfluid fraction and the one-body density matrix. As it is well known, in two dimensions the superfluid-to-normal phase transition follows the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) scenario. Our results show that both the anisotropic gas and the stripe phases follow the BKT scaling laws. At fixed density and increasing the tilting angle, the transition temperature decreases in going from the gas to the stripe phase. Superfluidity in the perpendicular direction to the stripes is rather small close to the critical temperature but it becomes larger at lower temperatures, mainly close to the transition to the gas. Our results are in qualitative agreement with the supersolidity observed recently in a quasi-one-dimensional array of dipolar droplets.
A two-dimensional quantum system of dipoles, with a polarization angle not perpendicular to the plane, shows a transition from a gas to a stripe phase. We have studied the thermal properties of these two phases using the path-integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) method. By simulating the thermal density matrix, PIMC provides exact results for magnitudes of interest such as the superfluid fraction and the one-body density matrix. As it is well known, in two dimensions the superfluid-to-normal phase transition follows the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) scenario. Our results show that both the anisotropic gas and the stripe phases follow the BKT scaling laws. At fixed density and increasing the tilting angle, the transition temperature decreases in going from the gas to the stripe phase. Superfluidity in the perpendicular direction to the stripes is rather small close to the critical temperature but it becomes larger at lower temperatures, mainly close to the transition to the gas. Our results are in qualitative agreement with the supersolidity observed recently in a quasi-one-dimensional array of dipolar droplets.
In a recent article [R. Bombin, F. Mazzanti, and J. Boronat, Phys. Rev. A 100, 063614 (2019)], it is contended that a two-dimensional system of dipolar bosons, with dipole moments aligned at particular angles with respect to the direction perpendicular to the plane of motion, featuring a ``striped'' crystalline ground state, in turn undergoes a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless superfluid transition at low temperature, making it a two-dimensional supersolid. We show here that the results provided therein, obtained by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations, do not actually support such a conclusion. Rather, they are consistent with that expounded in our work [J. Low Temp. Phys. 196, 413 (2019)], namely that the striped ground state is insulating (i.e., nonsuperfluid in the conventional sense), essentially behaving like a system of quasi-one-dimensional, parallel independent chains. We attribute the incorrectness of the conclusion reached by Bombin, Mazzanti, and Boronat to the very small sizes of their simulated system, which do not allow for a reliable extrapolation to the thermodynamic limit.
This is a Reply to the Comment from F. Cinti and M. Boninsegni on our recent work on the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition in a two-dimensional dipolar system [Bomb\'{\i}n, Mazzanti, and Boronat, Phys. Rev. A 100, 063614 (2019)]. The main criticism about our work expressed in that Comment is that we did not explicitly report the two spatial contributions to the total superfluid fraction. Here we analyze our results for a point of the phase diagram corresponding to the stripe phase, close to the gas-to-stripe transition line, and for a temperature below the BKT critical temperature. The scaling with the system size of the contribution to the superfluid fraction, coming from the direction in which spatial order appears, shows that it remains finite in the thermodynamic limit, as we already stated in our original work. This allow us to state that the stripe phase is superfluid at low temperatures. Furthermore, we offer some comments that help to understand where the differences between the results of Cinti and Boninsegni and ours come from.
The superfluid to normal fluid transition of dipolar bosons in two dimensions is studied in a broad density range by using path integral Monte Carlo simulations and summarized in the phase diagram. While at low densities we find good agreement with the universal results depending only on the scattering length a{s}, at moderate and high densities the transition temperature is strongly affected by interactions and the excitation spectrum of quasiparticles. The results are expected to be of relevance to dipolar atomic and molecular systems and indirect excitons in quantum wells.
We study the superfluid properties of a system of fully polarized dipolar bosons moving in the XY plane. We focus on the general case where the polarization field forms an arbitrary angle α with respect to the Z axis, while the system is still stable. We use the diffusion Monte Carlo and the path integral ground state methods to evaluate the one-body density matrix and the superfluid fractions in the region of the phase diagram where the system forms stripes. Despite its oscillatory behavior, the presence of a finite large-distance asymptotic value in the s-wave component of the one-body density matrix indicates the existence of a Bose condensate. The superfluid fraction along the stripes direction is always close to 1, while in the Y direction decreases to a small value that is nevertheless different from zero. These two facts confirm that the stripe phase of the dipolar Bose system is a clear candidate for an intrinsic supersolid without the presence of defects as described by the Andreev-Lifshitz mechanism.
Long-range and anisotropic dipolar interactions induce complex order in quantum systems, particularly interesting in 2D where superfluidity emerges via the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) mechanism. We observe a superfluid phase with algebraically decaying correlation in a quasi-2D dipolar Bose gas of erbium atoms and further identify the superfluid phase transition by monitoring extended coherence. We also measure equations of state with tunable dipolar interactions. Our findings show a transition point shift due to dipole orientation, aligning with BKT transition with effective short-range interaction. However, we observe that in-plane tilted dipoles show nonlocal effects in the superfluid regime, preventing the effective short-range interaction from revealing universal behavior near the BKT critical point. We also measure anisotropic atom number fluctuations in the superfluid regime, highlighting its dipolar nature. Our results provide a foundation for understanding dipolar bosons in 2D and pave the way for investigating complex orders in dipolar superfluids.
This thesis discusses the experiments on 2D dipolar Bose gas of ultracold erbium atoms. Long-range and anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction induces complex orders in quantum many-body systems. Highly magnetic lanthanide atoms such as dysprosium and erbium have the largest magnetic moment in the periodic table, which has attracted significant attention in the past decades. Starting from quantum degenerate dysprosium and erbium atoms, exotic phases like quantum droplets, supersolid, dipolar quantum solid in the Hubbard regime have been studied. However, the 2D dipolar superfluid still remains understudied, despite being theoretically discussed for over two decades. Although tremendous theoretical proposals predict different phenomena in 2D dipolar superfluids, our first interest is to know how the superfluidity emerges in the 2D dipolar gases at finite temperatures. Our observations suggest that the superfluid transition can be well described by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition with an effective contact interaction as a function of dipolar orientation. With the 2D dipolar superfluid with strong DDI, we characterized the elementary excitation of the matter: the collective breathing mode. Our measurements establish how the competition between local and nonlocal interaction in strongly dipolar 2D superfluid retains quasi-scale invariance or strongly breaks scale invariance. By further searching the interaction parameters, we created stripes with global coherence, which are the first supersolid stripes in 2D. Experiments including measuring density fluctuation, coherence, and collective mode have been performed to understand the 2D supersolid. At last, we also observe unconventional light scattering from round-disk dipolar BECs, which provides new possibilities for atom optics.