Self-bound quantum droplets form when the mean-field tendency of the gas to collapse is stabilized by the effectively repulsive beyond-mean-field fluctuations. The beyond-mean-field effects depend on Rabi frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{R}$ and quadratic Zeeman effect
q for the Rabi-coupled Bose mixtures and the spinor gases, respectively. For a quantum droplet, the effects of varying ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{R}$ and
q have recently been examined only for unpolarized Rabi-coupled Bose mixtures and unpolarized spinor gases. In this paper, we theoretically explore the stability of the droplet phase for polarized Rabi-coupled Bose mixtures and polarized spinor gases. We calculate the beyond-mean-field corrections for both gases with polarized order parameters and obtain the phase diagram of the droplets on the parameter space of Rabi frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{R}$ and detuning $\ensuremath{\delta}$ for Rabi-coupled mixtures and quadratic Zeeman energy
q and linear Zeeman energy
p for spinor gases. Finally, we highlight the similarities and differences between the two systems and discuss their experimental feasibility.
The interacting Bose-Einstein condensates are mechanically stabilized by an external confinement such as magnetic, or optical traps. When the confinement is removed, they exhibit an expansion or collapse behavior depending on the interaction being repulsive, or attractive, respectively. The Gross-Pitaevskii mean-field theories are generally sufficient to provide a qualitative understanding of the condensate equilibrium properties and dynamics, therefore, beyond mean-field fluctuations are considered as minor quantitative corrections. The quantum droplet phases are self-stabilized phases of the condensate, in which the attractive mean-field interaction is stabilized by the repulsive Lee-Huang-Yang fluctuations without any external trap. The droplets are studied theoretically for binary Bose mixture and dipolar condensates, and both are recently realized in the ultracold atomic gas experiments. Here we propose the spin-1 condensate as another candidate to exhibit a quantum droplet phase. We argue that the spin-1 condensates in the polar and anti-ferromagnetic order parameters can exhibit a similar self-stabilizing mechanism. We also realize an analogy between the polarized spin-1 and Rabi-coupled binary mixture condensates. The Rabi frequency
ωR and quadratic Zeeman energy
q can tune the Lee-Huang-Yang energy for the Rabi-coupled mixture and spin-1 gas, respectively. Furthermore, the detuning
δ and linear Zeeman energy
p are external parameters to tune the polarization in Rabi-coupled mixture, and spin-1 gas, respectively, which can significantly change the mean-field energy. We create the phase diagram for the mechanical stability of the Rabi-coupled mixture and spin-1 gas on the parameter planes of
ωR−δ and
q−p, respectively. We finally address how the Bose mixture quantum droplets respond to the rotation. We find that the strongly confined quantum droplets exhibit triangular vortex lattices under rapid rotation. The properties of the vortex lattices differ from the repulsive condensates in three points. First, the change in the droplet size is only fractional at the rapid rotation limit, unlike the diverging radius of the repulsive condensate. This property can lead the way to realizing the lowest Landau level states and strongly correlated phases in the rotating ultracold gases. Secondly, the change in the core size throughout the vortex lattice is more tractable due to the finite density at the edge of the condensate. Finally, the vortex lattices are slightly distorted, which agrees with the expected vortex density profile due to the nonuniform superfluid density. In the rapid rotation limit, the droplet approaches the flat-top density profile, in which the vortex lattice is closest to a perfect periodicity.
These lecture notes contain an introduction to quantum simulation of bosonic systems in the continuum, focusing on weakly interacting Bose-Bose mixtures with competing mean-field interactions. When the values of such interactions are fine-tuned to almost completely cancel the mean-field energy, quantum fluctuations become apparent and dominate the behavior of the system, stabilizing an ultradilute quantum liquid phase. An analogous situation appears in single-component dipolar quantum gases. We review the mechanism that gives rise to this exotic quantum liquid, which can form droplets that are self-bound in the absence of any external confinement, and discuss their properties and dynamics in both the mixture and the dipolar cases. In dipolar gases, arrays of dipolar droplets stabilized by quantum fluctuations can establish global phase coherence and form supersolids. In bosonic mixtures, supersolidity can emerge already at the mean-field level through spin-orbit coupling. We discuss the properties of such spin-orbit-coupled supersolids, comparing them to their dipolar counterparts. Specifically, we focus on their periodic density modulation, phase coherence, and peculiar excitation spectrum, which hosts both superfluid and crystal excitations. Finally, we conclude by discussing open research directions in the areas of quantum liquid droplets and spin-orbit-coupled supersolids, in particular at the interface of the two research topics.
We study stability of a zero temperature mixture of attractively interacting degenerate bosons and spin-polarized fermions in the absence of confinement. We demonstrate that higher order corrections to the standard mean field energy of the system can lead to a formation of liquid droplets -- self-bound incompressible systems in a three-dimensional space. In addition to the quantum Lee-Huang-Yang correction to the boson-boson interaction energy, a higher order term in the Bose-Fermi coupling constant is crucial for stabilization of the system. We study a stability region of droplets for three different mixtures of species with different mass ratios, namely:
41K
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40K,
87Rb
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40K, and
133Cs
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6Li as a function of the ratio of Bose-Fermi to Bose-Bose scattering length. The stability analysis is supported by a numerical simulations of droplet formation dynamics starting with a trapped system which is subsequently released from the trap. Our results indicate that Bose-Fermi droplets can be realized experimentally.
Quantum droplets can emerge in bosonic binary magnetic gases (BMGs) from the interplay of short- and long-ranged interactions, and quantum fluctuations. We develop an extended mean field theory for this system and use it to predict equilibrium and dynamical properties of BMG droplets. We present a phase diagram and characterize miscible and immiscible droplet states. We also show that a single-component self-bound droplet can bind another magnetic component, which is not in the droplet regime, due to the interspecies dipole-dipole interactions. Our results should be realizable in experiments with mixtures of highly magnetic lanthanide atoms.
Quantum droplets have been realized in experiments on binary boson mixtures and dipolar Bose gases. In these systems, the mean-field energy of the Bose-Einstein condensation is attractive, and the repulsive Lee-Huang-Yang energy is crucial for stability. However, since the Lee-Huang-Yang term is not taken into account when constructing the Bogoliubov Hamiltonian, in the droplet regime one faces the problem of dynamically unstable phonon modes. In this work, we go beyond the Bogoliubov theory to study how the phonon mode is stabilized in the quantum droplet of a binary boson mixture. Similar to Beliaev's approach to a single-component Bose gas, we compute higher-order contributions to the self-energy of the boson propagator. We find that the interaction between spin and phonon excitations is the key for the phonon stability. We obtain the sound velocity which can be tested by measuring the superfluid critical velocity of the droplet in experiments. Beliaev damping of this quantum droplet is also discussed.