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arXiv:2106.11300 · Nature

Crystallization of bosonic quantum Hall states in a rotating quantum gas

Biswaroop Mukherjee, Airlia Shaffer, Parth Patel, Zhenjie Yan, Cedric Wilson, Valentin Crépel, Richard J. Fletcher, Martin W. Zwierlein

Published Jan 5, 2022• 76 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The dominance of interactions over kinetic energy lies at the heart of strongly correlated quantum matter, from fractional quantum Hall liquids, to atoms in optical lattices and twisted bilayer graphene. Crystalline phases often compete with correlated quantum liquids, and transitions between them occur when the energy cost of forming a density wave approaches zero. A prime example occurs for electrons in high magnetic fields, where the instability of quantum Hall liquids towards a Wigner crystal is heralded by a roton-like softening of density modulations at the magnetic length. Remarkably, interacting bosons in a gauge field are also expected to form analogous liquid and crystalline states. However, combining interactions with strong synthetic magnetic fields has been a challenge for experiments on bosonic quantum gases. Here, we study the purely interaction-driven dynamics of a Landau gauge Bose-Einstein condensate in and near the lowest Landau level. We observe a spontaneous crystallization driven by condensation of magneto-rotons, excitations visible as density modulations at the magnetic length. Increasing the cloud density smoothly connects this behaviour to a quantum version of the Kelvin-Helmholtz hydrodynamic instability, driven by the sheared internal flow profile of the rapidly rotating condensate. At long times the condensate self-organizes into a persistent array of droplets, separated by vortex streets, which are stabilized by a balance of interactions and effective magnetic forces.

DOI
10.1038/s41586-021-04170-2

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•Jul 16, 2012•0 citations
Abstract The dominance of interactions over kinetic energy lies at the heart of strongly correlated quantum matter, from fractional quantum Hall liquids, to atoms in optical lattices and twisted bilayer graphene. Crystalline phases often compete with correlated quantum liquids, and transitions between them occur when the energy cost of forming a density wave approaches zero. A prime example occurs for electrons in high magnetic fields, where the instability of quantum Hall liquids towards a Wigner crystal is heralded by a roton-like softening of density modulations at the magnetic length. Remarkably, interacting bosons in a gauge field are also expected to form analogous liquid and crystalline states. However, combining interactions with strong synthetic magnetic fields has been a challenge for experiments on bosonic quantum gases. Here, we study the purely interaction-driven dynamics of a Landau gauge Bose-Einstein condensate in and near the lowest Landau level. We observe a spontaneous crystallization driven by condensation of magneto-rotons, excitations visible as density modulations at the magnetic length. Increasing the cloud density smoothly connects this behaviour to a quantum version of the Kelvin-Helmholtz hydrodynamic instability, driven by the sheared internal flow profile of the rapidly rotating condensate. At long times the condensate self-organizes into a persistent array of droplets, separated by vortex streets, which are stabilized by a balance of interactions and effective magnetic forces.
Recent experiments demonstrate that rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) near the lowest Landau level can self-organize into interaction-driven persistent quantum Hall droplet arrays. Inspired by this discovery, we investigate the formation and dynamics of single quantum Hall droplet and droplet arrays in rapidly rotating BECs. Guided by a rigorous theorem on localized many-body states for two-dimensional interacting systems in a magnetic field, we construct single quantum Hall droplet and droplet array states which are shown to be stationary solutions to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the rotating frame. The single quantum Hall droplet is shown to be dynamically stable, which underpins its role as the basic unit in a droplet array. The stability of the quantum Hall droplet arrays is demonstrated by their dynamic formation from a phase engineered initial condensate. Our study sheds light onto the nature of the quantum Hall droplet state in a rapidly rotating BEC and offers a new approach for generating and manipulating quantum Hall droplet arrays through designing the initial condensate phase.
Recently bosonic quantum Hall droplets have been observed in rapidly rotating two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), which exhibit robust dynamical stability. Inspired by this, we systematically investigate the collision and coalescence dynamics of these droplets within the Gross-Pitaevskii framework. For two-droplet collisions, we find two distinct collision outcomes, namely merging and separation, that are controlled by the initial relative velocity. The critical velocity exhibits a universal scaling law with the interaction and the particle number as vc∝(gN)1/4v_c \propto (gN)^{1/4}vc​∝(gN)1/4, which can be interpreted from a simplified analytical model, revealing the essential role of the collision time. It differs fundamentally from the mechanism governing the conventional Lee-Huang-Yang stabilized quantum droplets. Furthermore, while the collision can change the shape of the droplet significantly, the center of mass trajectory remains nearly unaffected, owing to the conservation of angular momentum. For overlapping stationary droplets, vortex arrays can emerge through Kelvin-Helmholtz instability driven by phase-induced shear flow. Although two droplets may merge into a larger one, extended states cannot be constructed from multiple overlapping droplets. Instead, the system dynamically reorganizes into new isolated droplets, revealing the localized property in the bulk region. Our results reveal the unique nonequilibrium dynamics of quantum Hall droplets and suggest new pathways for manipulating strongly correlated rotating quantum fluids.
The close theoretical analogy between the physics of rapidly rotating atomic Bose condensates and the quantum Hall effect (i.e. a two-dimensional electron gas in a strong magnetic field) was first pointed out ten years ago. As a consequence of this analogy, a large number of strongly correlated quantum-Hall-type states have been predicted to occur in rotating Bose systems, and suggestions have been made for how to manipulate and observe their fractional quasiparticle excitations. Due to a very rapid development in experimental techniques over the past years, experiments on BEC now appear to be close to reaching the quantum Hall regime. This paper reviews the theoretical and experimental work done to date in exploring quantum Hall physics in cold bosonic gases. Future perspectives are discussed briefly, in particular the idea of exploiting some of these strongly correlated states in the context of topological quantum computing.
After reviewing the ideal Bose-Einstein gas in a box and in a harmonic trap, the effect of interactions on the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate are discussed, along with the dynamics of small-amplitude perturbations (the Bogoliubov equations). When the condensate rotates with angular velocity $\ensuremath{\Omega}$, one or several vortices nucleate, leading to many observable consequences. With more rapid rotation, the vortices form a dense triangular array, and the collective behavior of these vortices has additional experimental implications. For $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ near the radial trap frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, the lowest-Landau-level approximation becomes applicable, providing a simple picture of such rapidly rotating condensates. Eventually, as $\ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, the rotating dilute gas is expected to undergo a quantum phase transition from a superfluid to various highly correlated (nonsuperfluid) states analogous to those familiar from the fractional quantum Hall effect for electrons in a strong perpendicular magnetic field.
In this article, we review developments in the theory of rapidly rotating degenerate atomic gases. The main focus is on the equilibrium properties of a single-component atomic Bose gas, which (at least at rest) forms a Bose–Einstein condensate. Rotation leads to the formation of quantized vortices which order into a vortex array, in close analogy with the behaviour of superfluid helium. Under conditions of rapid rotation, when the vortex density becomes large, atomic Bose gases offer the possibility to explore the physics of quantized vortices in novel parameter regimes. First, there is an interesting regime in which the vortices become sufficiently dense that their cores, as set by the healing length, start to overlap. In this regime, the theoretical description simplifies, allowing a reduction to single-particle states in the lowest Landau level. Second, one can envisage entering a regime of very high vortex density, when the number of vortices becomes comparable to the number of particles in the gas. In this regime, theory predicts the appearance of a series of strongly correlated phases, which can be viewed as bosonic versions of fractional quantum Hall states. In this article, we describe the equilibrium properties of rapidly rotating atomic Bose gases in both the mean-field and the strongly correlated regimes, and related theoretical developments for Bose gases in lattices, for multi-component Bose gases and for atomic Fermi gases. The current experimental situation and outlook for the future are discussed in light of these theoretical developments.
We study ultracold Rydberg-dressed Bose gases subject to artificial gauge fields in the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) regime. The characteristics of the Rydberg interaction gives rise to interesting many-body ground states different from standard FQH physics in the lowest Landau level (LLL). The non-local but rapidly decreasing interaction potential favors crystalline ground states for very dilute systems. While a simple Wigner crystal becomes energetically favorable compared to the Laughlin liquid for filling fractions ν<1/12\nu<1/12ν<1/12, a correlated crystal of composite particles emerges already for ν≤1/6\nu \leq 1/6ν≤1/6 with a large energy gap to the simple Wigner crystal. The presence of a new length scale, the Rydberg blockade radius aBa_BaB​, gives rise to a bubble crystal phase for ν≲1/4\nu\lesssim 1/4ν≲1/4 when the average particle distance becomes less than aBa_BaB​, which describes the region of saturated, almost constant interaction potential. For larger fillings indications for strongly correlated cluster liquids are found.