It is known that, under appropriate conditions, mean-field interactions can be canceled in binary BEC, leading to the formation of the Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) superfluid, in which the nonlinearity is solely represented by the quartic LHY term. In this work we systematically investigate the existence, stability and evolution of hopfion states in this species of quantum matter. They are characterized by two independent topological winding numbers: inner twist $s$ of the vortex-ring core and overall vorticity $m$. The interplay between the LHY self-repulsion and a trapping harmonic-oscillator potential results in stability of the hopfions with $s = 1$ and $m$ ranging from $0$ to $4$. The hopfions exhibit distinct topological phase distributions along the vertical axis and the radial direction in the horizontal plane. Their effective radius and peak density increase with the chemical potential, along with expansion of the vortex-ring core. Although the instability domain of the hopfion modes broadens with the increase of $m$, stable hopfions persist in a wide range of the chemical potential, up to $m=4$, at least, provided that the norm exceeds a certain threshold value. The predictions are experimentally accessible in currently used BEC setups.
It is known that, under appropriate conditions, mean-field interactions can be canceled in binary BEC, leading to the formation of the Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) superfluid, in which the nonlinearity is solely represented by the quartic LHY term. In this work we systematically investigate the existence, stability and evolution of hopfion states in this species of quantum matter. They are characterized by two independent topological winding numbers: inner twist s of the vortex-ring core and overall vorticity m. The interplay between the LHY self-repulsion and a trapping harmonic-oscillator potential results in stability of the hopfions with s=1 and m ranging from 0 to 4. The hopfions exhibit distinct topological phase distributions along the vertical axis and the radial direction in the horizontal plane. Their effective radius and peak density increase with the chemical potential, along with expansion of the vortex-ring core. Although the instability domain of the hopfion modes broadens with the increase of m, stable hopfions persist in a wide range of the chemical potential, up to m=4, at least, provided that the norm exceeds a certain threshold value. The predictions are experimentally accessible in currently used BEC setups.
Hopfions are a class of three-dimensional (3D) solitons which are built as vortex tori carrying intrinsic twist of the toroidal core. They are characterized by two independent topological charges, \textit{viz}., vorticity S and winding number M of the intrinsic twist, whose product determines the \textit{Hopf number}, QH=MS, which is the basic characteristic of the hopfions. We construct hopfions as solutions of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equations (GPEs) for Bose-Einstein condensates in binary atomic gases. The GPE system includes the cubic mean-field self-attraction, competing with the quartic self-repulsive Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) term, which represents effects of quantum fluctuations around the mean-field state, and a trapping toroidal potential (TP). A systematic numerical analysis demonstrates that families of the states with S=1,M=0, i.e., QH=0, are stable, provided that the inner TP\ radius R0 exceeds a critical value. Furthermore, true hopfions with S=1,M=1∼7, which correspond, accordingly, to QH=1∼7, also form partly stable families, including the case of the LHY\ superfluid, in which the nonlinearity is represented solely by the LHY term. On the other hand, the hopfion family is completely unstable in the absence of the LHY term, when only the mean-field nonlinearity is present. We illustrate the knot-like structure of the hopfions by means of an elementary geometric picture. For QH=0, circles which represent the \textit{preimage} of the full state do not intersect. On the contrary, for QH≥1 they intersect at points whose number is identical to QH. The intersecting curves form multi-petal structures with the number of petals also equal to QH.
The nucleation and dynamics of vortices in the quasi-two-dimensional rotating dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate are explored by taking into account the Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) correction to the mean-field (MF) theory. Assuming approximate cancellation of the MF interactions, we focus on the formation of a pure LHY superfluid. The effect of rotational frequency Ω is investigated numerically by determining the corresponding number of stable vortices in the superfluid, together with the respective energy per particle E and chemical potential μ. The LHY superfluid provides a deep minimum of E and μ, indicating that it is a remarkably robust state of quantum matter. By fixing the LHY interaction strength, an exact single-vortex critical frequency is found, along with the respective chemical potential. A notable feature, observed when creating the LHY superfluid with fewer than five vortices, which is understood as being due to the superfluid's nonlinearity and trapping aspect ratio, is the large frequency ranges admitting the production of two and four vortices, as compared to the small frequency ranges to obtain one and three vortices.
Hopfions are a class of three-dimensional (3D) solitons which are built as vortex tori carrying intrinsic twist of the toroidal core. They are characterized by two independent topological charges, viz., vorticity S and winding number M of the intrinsic twist, whose product determines the Hopf number, QH=MS, which is the basic characteristic of the hopfions. We construct hopfion-like states (HLSs) as solutions of the 3D Gross−Pitaevskii equations (GPEs) for Bose−Einstein condensates in binary atomic gases. The GPE system includes the cubic mean-field self-attraction, competing with the quartic self-repulsive Lee−Huang−Yang (LHY) term, which represents effects of quantum fluctuations around the mean-field state, and a trapping toroidal potential (TP). Although our system exhibits two independent topological charges, it does not fully conform to the Hopf map structure, and therefore does not constitute hopfions in the complete sense. A systematic numerical analysis demonstrates that families of the states with S=1,M=0, i.e., QH=0, are stable, provided that the inner TP radius R0 exceeds a critical value. Furthermore, HLSs with S=1,M=1−7, which correspond, accordingly, to QH=1−7, also form partly stable families, including the case of the LHY superfluid, in which the nonlinearity is represented solely by the LHY term. On the other hand, the HLSs family is completely unstable in the absence of the LHY term, when only the mean-field nonlinearity is present. We illustrate the knot-like structure of the HLSs by means of an elementary geometric picture. For QH=0, circles which represent the preimage of the full state do not intersect. On the contrary, for QH≥1 they intersect at points whose number is identical to QH. The intersecting curves form multi-petal structures with the number of petals also equal to QH.
It was recently found that the Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) correction to the mean-field Hamiltonian of binary atomic boson condensates suppresses the collapse and creates stable localized modes (two-component quantum droplets, QDs) in two and three dimensions (2D and 3D). In particular, the LHY effect modifies the effective Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) in 2D by adding a logarithmic factor to the usual cubic term. In the framework of the accordingly modified two-component GPE system, we construct 2D self-trapped modes in the form of QDs with vorticity S embedded into each component. Because of the effect of the logarithmic factor, the QDs feature a flat-top shape, which expands with the increase of S and norm N. An essential finding, produced by a systematic numerical investigation and analytical estimates, is that the vortical QDs are stable (which is a critical issue for vortex solitons in nonlinear models) up to S=5, for N exceeding a certain threshold value, which is predicted to scale as ${N}_{\mathrm{th}}\ensuremath{\sim}{S}^{4}$ for large S (for three-dimensional QDs, the scaling is ${N}_{\mathrm{th}}\ensuremath{\sim}{S}^{6}$). The prediction is corroborated by numerical findings. Pivots of QDs with $S\ensuremath{\ge}2$ are subject to structural instability, as specially selected perturbations can split the single pivot in a set of S or S+2 pivots corresponding to unitary vortices; however, the structural instability remains virtually invisible, as it occurs in a broad central ``hole'' of the vortex soliton, where values of fields are very small, and it does not cause any dynamical instability. In the condensate of 39K atoms, in which QDs with S=0 and a quasi-2D shape were created recently, the vortical droplets may have radial size $\ensuremath{\lesssim}30\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$, with the number of atoms in the range of 104−−105. The role of three-body losses is considered too, demonstrating that they do not prevent the creation of the vortex droplets but may produce a noteworthy effect, leading to sudden splitting of ``light'' droplets. In addition, hidden-vorticity (HV) states in QDs, with topological charges ${S}_{+}=\ensuremath{-}{S}_{\ensuremath{-}}=1$ in their components, which are prone to strong instability in other settings, have their stability region too. Unstable HV states tend to spontaneously merge into zero-vorticity solitons. Collisions of QDs, which may lead to their merger, and dynamics of elliptically deformed QDs (which form rotating elongated patterns or ones with oscillations of the eccentricity) are briefly considered too.
This brief review summarizes recent theoretical and experimental results which predict and establish the existence of quantum droplets (QDs), i.e., robust two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) self-trapped states in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), which are stabilized by effective self-repulsion induced by quantum fluctuations around the mean-field (MF) states [alias the Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) effect]. The basic models are presented, taking special care of the dimension crossover, 2D → 3D. Recently reported experimental results, which exhibit stable 3D and quasi-2D QDs in binary BECs, with the inter-component attraction slightly exceeding the MF self-repulsion in each component, and in single-component condensates of atoms carrying permanent magnetic moments, are presented in some detail. The summary of theoretical results is focused, chiefly, on 3D and quasi-2D QDs with embedded vorticity, as the possibility to stabilize such states is a remarkable prediction. Stable vortex states are presented both for QDs in free space, and for singular but physically relevant 2D modes pulled to the center by the inverse-square potential, with the quantum collapse suppressed by the LHY effect.
Bose-Einstein condensation(BEC) has been a research hotspot in cold atom physics for the past few decades. Recently, experiments on BECs have reported the observation of liquid-like quantum droplets, attracting significant interest. The physics for forming quantum droplets can be explained by zero-point quantum fluctuation which effectively prohibit the collapse caused by the mean-field interactions between the atoms. The stabilization mechanism beyond the mean-field theory, induced by quantum fluctuations, can be described by the Lee–Huang–Yang(LHY) correction. Normally, forming stable 2D or 3D solitons in free space is a challenging problem. Additionally, an intriguing question is how to generate 2D or 3D solitons with embedded vorticity. The LHY stability mechanism offers a new approach to producing stable solitons and vortex solitons in BECs. In this thesis, two-dimensional vortex quantum droplets in Bose-Einstein condensates, including those with and without external potential, are examined. The study of solitons and vortex solitons in BECs under mean-field interactions and external potential has yielded significant results. This thesis expands this field by introducing the LHY correction to study stable quantum droplets and vortex droplets in BECs. The work chapters begin with studying binary quantum droplets in free space, considering the case where interspecies interactions are weakly attractive and intraspecies interactions are weakly repulsive. The zero-vorticity, semi-vortex, and binary vortex quantum droplets are studied in Chapter 3. Stable semi-vortex quantum droplets with embedded vorticity up to 8 are found in this system. This result gives a way to form stable vortex droplets with high topological charges in free space by controlling one component with zero vorticity and the other component with embedded vorticity. The stability and properties of these droplets are systematically studied. Chapter 4 explores the vortex quantum droplets and hidden vortex droplets confined within a radial lattice trap. It is found that the existence curves of the droplets confined within this optical trap could violate the Vakhitov-Kolokolov(VK) criterion, which is a necessary condition to form a stable soliton. A remarkable finding is that the vortex and hidden vortex quantum droplets in this radial lattice remain stable when they carry the embedded vorticity up to 11. The double-ring vortex and hidden vortex quantum droplets confined within this radial lattice are also discussed. The work expands from non-magnetic atoms to magnetic atoms in Chapter 5, which needs to consider the dipole-dipole interactions(DDIs). The anisotropic dipolar vortex quantum droplets trapped in an annular potential are studied. Under the effect of the ring shape potential, the double peak ring-shaped vortex droplets remain stable when they carry the embedded vorticity up to 11. It is the first time stable droplets with high topological charges have been formed in a dipolar system. Additionally, the shape transformation of dipolar vortex droplets induced by the strength of the mean-field interaction is examined. Finally, the behavior of dipolar vortex droplets confined within a weak-depth annular potential is also discussed. The results of this thesis may prove highly useful in creating stable vortex quantum droplets in Bose-Einstein condensates and advancing the broader field of ultracold atoms.