We investigate the formation, stability, and dynamics of three-dimensional ring-shaped and multipole vortical quantum droplets (QDs) in nonrotating dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates held in a toroidal trapping potential. The QD dynamics are investigated in the framework of the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which includes long-range dipole-dipole interactions (DDIs) and the beyond-mean-field Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) term, revealing the emergence of self-bound states. Stable stationary solutions for multipole QDs with different values of the topological charge (vorticity S) are shaped as necklacelike modes, with the number of "beads" (multipole order) n=2S, up to S=6. The stability area of the multipoles shrinks with the increase of S. For higher values of S the centrifugal effect associated with the phase winding destabilizes the ring-shaped QDs and drives the formation of fragmented multipole droplet states. The dependence of the chemical potential, total energy, and peak density on the norm (number of particles) and S is produced. These findings uncover the stabilizing effect of the LHY correction and DDI anisotropy in maintaining complex QD states in the nonrotating configurations.
Quantum droplets (QDs) are self-trapped modes stabilized by the Lee-Huang-Yang correction to the mean-field Hamiltonian of binary atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. The existence and stability of quiescent and rotating dipole-shaped and vortex QDs with vorticity S = 1 (DQDs and VQDs, respectively) are numerically studied in the framework of the accordingly modified two-component system. The rotating DQDs trapped in an annular potential are built of two crescentlike components, stretching along the azimuthal direction with the increase of the rotation frequency. Rotating quadrupole QDs (QQDs) bifurcate from the VQDs with S = 2 . Above a certain rotation frequency, they transform back into VQDs with a flat-top shape. Rotating DQDs and QQDs are stable in a broad interval of values of the chemical potential. The results provide the first example of stable modes which are intermediate states between the rotating DQDs and QQDs on the one hand and VQDs on the other. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
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.
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.
Abstract We establish stability and characteristics of two-dimensional (2D) vortex ring-shaped quantum droplets (QDs) formed by binary Bose–Einstein condensates. The system is modeled by the Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) equation with the cubic term multiplied by a logarithmic factor (as produced by the Lee-Huang-Yang correction to the mean-field theory) and a potential which is a periodic function of the radial coordinate. Narrow vortex rings with high values of the topological charge, trapped in particular circular troughs of the radial potential, are produced. These results suggest an experimentally relevant method for the creation of vortical QDs (thus far, only zero-vorticity ones have been reported). The 2D GP equation for the narrow rings is approximately reduced to the one-dimensional form, which makes it possible to study the modulational stability of the rings against azimuthal perturbations. Full stability areas are delineated for these modes. The trapping capacity of the circular troughs is identified for the vortex rings with different winding numbers (WNs). Stable compound states in the form of mutually nested concentric multiple rings are constructed too, including ones with opposite signs of the WNs. Other robust compound states combine a modulationally stable narrow ring in one circular potential trough and an azimuthal soliton performing orbital motion in an adjacent one. The results may be used to design a device employing coexisting ring-shaped modes with different WNs for data storage.
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.