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arXiv:2007.00888 · New Journal of Physics

Thermal destabilization of self-bound ultradilute quantum droplets

Jia Wang, Hui Hu, Xia-Ji Liu

Published Oct 1, 2020• 26 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract We theoretically investigate the temperature effect in a Bose–Bose mixture with attractive inter-species interactions, in the regime where a self-bound ultradilute quantum droplet forms due to the subtle balance between the attractive mean-field force and the repulsive force provided by Lee–Huang–Yang quantum fluctuations. We find that in contrast to quantum fluctuations, thermal fluctuations destabilize the droplet state and completely destroy it above a threshold temperature. We show that the threshold temperature is determined by the intra-species interaction energy. For a three-dimensional Bose–Bose mixture, the threshold temperature is less than one-tenth of the Bose–Einstein condensation temperature under the typical experimental conditions. With increasing temperature, the droplet’s equilibrium density gradually decreases and can be reduced by several tens of percent upon reaching the threshold temperature. We also consider a one-dimensional quantum droplet and find a similar destabilization effect due to thermal fluctuations. The threshold temperature in one dimension is roughly set by the binding energy of the inter-species dimer. The pronounced thermal instability of a self-bound quantum droplet predicted in our work could be examined in future experiments, by measuring the temperature dependence of its central density and observing its sudden disappearance at the threshold temperature.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/abbe55

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Abstract We theoretically investigate the temperature effect in a Bose–Bose mixture with attractive inter-species interactions, in the regime where a self-bound ultradilute quantum droplet forms due to the subtle balance between the attractive mean-field force and the repulsive force provided by Lee–Huang–Yang quantum fluctuations. We find that in contrast to quantum fluctuations, thermal fluctuations destabilize the droplet state and completely destroy it above a threshold temperature. We show that the threshold temperature is determined by the intra-species interaction energy. For a three-dimensional Bose–Bose mixture, the threshold temperature is less than one-tenth of the Bose–Einstein condensation temperature under the typical experimental conditions. With increasing temperature, the droplet’s equilibrium density gradually decreases and can be reduced by several tens of percent upon reaching the threshold temperature. We also consider a one-dimensional quantum droplet and find a similar destabilization effect due to thermal fluctuations. The threshold temperature in one dimension is roughly set by the binding energy of the inter-species dimer. The pronounced thermal instability of a self-bound quantum droplet predicted in our work could be examined in future experiments, by measuring the temperature dependence of its central density and observing its sudden disappearance at the threshold temperature.
We theoretically investigate the finite-temperature structure and collective excitations of a self-bound ultradilute Bose droplet in a flat space realized in a binary Bose mixture with attractive inter-species interactions on the verge of mean-field collapse. As the droplet formation relies critically on the repulsive force provided by Lee–Huang–Yang quantum fluctuations, which can be easily compensated by thermal fluctuations, we find a significant temperature effect in the density distribution and collective excitation spectrum of the Bose droplet. A finite-temperature phase diagram as a function of the number of particles is determined. We show that the critical number of particles at the droplet-to-gas transition increases dramatically with increasing temperature. Towards the bulk threshold temperature for thermally destabilizing an infinitely large droplet, we find that the excitation-forbidden, self-evaporation region in the excitation spectrum, predicted earlier by Petrov using a zero-temperature theory, shrinks and eventually disappears. All the collective excitations, including both surface modes and compressional bulk modes, become softened at the droplet-to-gas transition. The predicted temperature effects of a self-bound Bose droplet in this work could be difficult to measure experimentally due to the lack of efficient thermometry at low temperatures. However, these effects may already present in the current cold-atom experiments.
We investigate the effects of higher-order quantum fluctuations on the bulk properties of self-bound droplets in three-, two- and one-dimensional binary Bose mixtures using the Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov theory. We calculate higher-order corrections to the equation of state of the droplet at both zero and finite temperatures. We show that our results for the ground-state energy are in a good agreement with recent quantum Monte Carlo simulations in any dimension. Our study extends to the finite temperature case where it is found that thermal fluctuations may destabilize the droplet state and eventually destroy it. In two dimensions, we reveal that the droplet occurs at temperatures well below the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition temperature.
We investigate the properties of self-bound ultradilute Bose-Bose mixtures, beyond the Lee-Huang-Yang description. Our approach is based on the determination of the beyond mean-field corrections to the phonon modes of the mixture in a self-consistent way and calculation of the associated equation of state. The newly obtained ground state energies show excellent agreement with recent quantum Monte Carlo calculations, providing a simple and accurate description of the self-bound mixtures with contact type interaction. We further show numerical results for the equilibrium properties of the finite size droplet, by adjusting the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our analysis is extended to the one-dimensional mixtures where an excellent agreement with quantum Monte Carlo predictions is found for the equilibrium densities. Finally, we discuss the effects of temperature on the stability of the liquid phase.
We study the properties of self-bound liquid droplets of three-dimensional Bose mixtures in a weak random potential with Gaussian correlation function at both zero and finite temperatures. Using the Bogoliubov theory, we derive useful formulas for the ground-state energy, the equilibrium density, the depletion, and the anomalous density of the droplet. The quantum fluctuation induced by the disorder known as the glassy fraction is also systematically computed. At finite temperature, we calculate the free energy, the thermal equilibrium density, and the critical temperature in terms of the disorder parameters. We show that when the strength and the correlation length of the disorder potential exceed a certain critical value, the droplet evaporates and is eventually entirely destroyed. We calculate the density profiles of this exotic state by means of numerical simulations of the corresponding generalized disorder Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our predictions reveal that as the strength of the disorder gets larger, the atomic density varies rapidly in the plateau region. We point out in addition that the peculiar interplay of the disorder and the repulsive Lee-Huang-Yang corrections play a pivotal role in the collective modes of the self-bound droplet.
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 low-dimensional two-component Bose-Bose mixtures, by generalizing the conventional Bogoliubov theory to include the bosonic pairing arising from the inter-species attraction. Our pairing theory is fully equivalent to a variational approach and hence gives an upper bound for the energy of quantum droplets. In one dimension, we find that the energy calculated by the pairing theory is in an excellent agreement with the latest diffusion Monte Carlo simulation {[}Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{122}, 105302 (2019){]}, for nearly all the interaction strengths at which quantum droplets exist. In two dimensions, we show that quantum droplets disappear and may turn into a soliton-like many-body bound state, when the inter-species attraction exceeds a critical value. Below the threshold, the pairing theory predicts more or less the same results as the Bogoliubov theory derived by Petrov and Astrakharchik {[}Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{117}, 100401 (2016){]}. The predicted energies from both theories are higher than the diffusion Monte Carlo results, due to the weak inter-species attraction and the increasingly important role played by the beyond-Bogoliubov-approximation effect in two dimensions. Our pairing theory provides an ideal starting point to understand interesting ground-state properties of quantum droplets, including their shape and collective oscillations.
We discuss the bulk and surface properties of ultradilute self-bound quantum droplets in a heteronuclear Bose-Bose mixture in the presence of higher-order quantum and thermal fluctuations. Within the realm of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory, we calculate beyond the Lee-Huang-Yang corrections to the ground-state energy, the droplet equilibrium density, the surface tension, and the critical number of particles. Our predictions are compared with recent diffusion Monte Carlo simulation and density functional theory method and excellent agreement is found. We address in addition the effects of temperature on the formation and on the robustness of the heteronuclear self-bound mixtures.