Microwave-dressed polar molecules offer a route to lattice quantum simulators in which the angular form of long-range dipolar interactions, not only their overall strength, can be engineered. We study this setting in a minimal hard-core Bose lattice model on a square optical lattice, with particles interacting through a sign-changing non-axisymmetric dipolar tail \mathcal V(\mathbf r)\propto (x^2-y^2)/(x^2+y^2)^{5/2} that is repulsive along one lattice axis and attractive along the other. Using worm-algorithm path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulations, supported by a hard-core spin mapping and a Gutzwiller soft-mode diagnostic, we find two regimes controlled by t/V: at larger t/V the system remains superfluid but develops a pronounced directional stiffness anisotropy, while at smaller t/V it forms a stripe solid selected in the (q,0) axial family, corresponding to real-space stripes parallel to y. The leading ordering wave vector remains in this axial family but reorganizes with filling, showing that the robust ordered object is a family of stripe states rather than one fixed commensurate Bragg peak. Near the closure of the stripe lobe, averaged observables can mimic a narrow supersolid signal; measurement-resolved stripe structure-factor histograms instead reveal first-order switching between superfluid and stripe-solid sectors. NaCs lattice estimates place the relevant V/t window within reach of modest effective dressed dipole moments, linking the predicted stripe-family order and its experimental diagnostics to accessible molecular quantum-simulation scales.
Microwave-dressed polar molecules offer a route to lattice quantum simulators in which the angular form of long-range dipolar interactions, not only their overall strength, can be engineered. We study this setting in a minimal hard-core Bose lattice model on a square optical lattice, with particles interacting through a sign-changing non-axisymmetric dipolar tail \mathcal V(\mathbf r)\propto (x^2-y^2)/(x^2+y^2)^{5/2} that is repulsive along one lattice axis and attractive along the other. Using worm-algorithm path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulations, supported by a hard-core spin mapping and a Gutzwiller soft-mode diagnostic, we find two regimes controlled by t/V: at larger t/V the system remains superfluid but develops a pronounced directional stiffness anisotropy, while at smaller t/V it forms a stripe solid selected in the (q,0) axial family, corresponding to real-space stripes parallel to y. The leading ordering wave vector remains in this axial family but reorganizes with filling, showing that the robust ordered object is a family of stripe states rather than one fixed commensurate Bragg peak. Near the closure of the stripe lobe, averaged observables can mimic a narrow supersolid signal; measurement-resolved stripe structure-factor histograms instead reveal first-order switching between superfluid and stripe-solid sectors. NaCs lattice estimates place the relevant V/t window within reach of modest effective dressed dipole moments, linking the predicted stripe-family order and its experimental diagnostics to accessible molecular quantum-simulation scales.
A supersolid combines density order with phase coherence, and doped lattice solids ask whether added defects can become coherent without melting the ordered background. We study a soft-core Bose-Hubbard model with isotropic hopping and an engineered non-axisymmetric dipolar interaction, Vij=V2(xij2−yij2)/rij5+W6/rij6, where the sign-changing dx2−y2 component selects a fixed (q,0) stripe channel and the W6/r6 core stabilizes the short-distance attractive branch. Using sign-problem-free quantum Monte Carlo method with worm algorithm, we find that the half-filled stripe parent responds asymmetrically to doping: the hole side forms locked commensurate stripe solids with vanishing superfluid stiffness, whereas the particle side forms a stripe supersolid with finite compressibility κ>0, finite superfluid stiffness ρs>0, and enhanced double occupancy D. Keeping the same off-site kernel while increasing U/t toward the hard-core limit shows that the particle-side supersolid disappears once doublon-like defects are projected out. Thus the engineered dipolar kernel selects the fixed (q,0) stripe channel, while onsite softness selects the phase-coherent defect sector.
By means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations we study phase diagrams of dipolar bosons in a square optical lattice. The dipoles in the system are parallel to each other and their orientation can be fixed in any direction in the three-dimensional space. Starting from experimentally tunable parameters like scattering length and dipolar interaction strength, we derive the parameters entering the effective Hamiltonian. Depending on the direction of the dipoles, various types of supersolids (e.g., checkerboard, stripe) and solids (checkerboard, stripe, diagonal stripe, and an incompressible phase) can be stabilized. Remarkably, we find a cluster supersolid characterized by the formation of horizontal clusters of particles. These clusters order along a direction at an angle with the horizontal. Moreover, we find what we call a grain-boundary superfluid. In this phase, regions with solid order are separated by extended defects---grain boundaries---which support superfluidity. We also investigate the robustness of the stripe supersolid against thermal fluctuations. Finally, we comment on the experimental realization of the phases found.
We show anisotropy of the dipole interaction between magnetic atoms or polar molecules can stabilize new quantum phases in an optical lattice. Using a well-controlled numerical method based on the tensor network algorithm, we calculate the phase diagram of the resultant effective Hamiltonian in a two-dimensional square lattice---an anisotropic Hubbard model of hard-core bosons with attractive interaction in one direction and repulsive interaction in the other direction. Besides the conventional superfluid and the Mott insulator states, we find the striped and the checkerboard charge-density-wave states and the supersolid phase that interconnect the superfluid and the striped solid states. The transition to the supersolid phase has a mechanism different from the case of the soft-core Bose-Hubbard model.
In this paper, we study an extended bosonic t-J model in an optical lattice, which describes two-component hard-core bosons with nearest-neighbor pseudospin interactions and, also, inter- and intraspecies dipole-dipole interactions. In particular, we focus on the case in which two-component hard-core bosons have antiparallel polarized dipoles with each other. The global phase diagram is studied by means of the Gutzwiller variational method and also quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. Both calculations show that a striped solid order, besides a checkerboard one, appears as a result of the dipole-dipole interactions. By QMC, we find that two kinds of supersolids (SSs) form, i.e., checkerboard SS and striped SS, and we also verify the existence of an exotic phase between the striped solid and the checkerboard SS. Finally, by QMC, we study the t-J-like model, which was recently realized experimentally by A. de Paz et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 185305 (2013)].
Recent advances in realizing nearly degenerate dipolar gases in optical lattices have enabled the study of quantum systems with long-range anisotropic interactions. Here, we investigate hard-core dipolar bosons on a two-dimensional square lattice described by an extended Bose--Hubbard model. Using path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulations at fixed azimuthal angle φ=45∘, we investigate density instabilities arising from first-order phase transitions. We start by mapping the ground-state phase diagram at half filling as a function of dipolar interaction strength and polar angle θ. For weak interactions, the system remains superfluid for all θ. Above a critical interaction strength, the superfluid phase becomes unstable and gives way to checkerboard, stripe, or incompressible phases depending on θ. For θ≳62∘, we find that half filling becomes unstable and only the empty state, n=0, and the fully filled state, n=1, are stable. Unlike recent experimental reports of a self-bound insulator at half filling, the homogeneous ground state does not support such a phase, but instead exhibits a direct first-order transition between n=0 and n=1. At finite temperature, thermal fluctuations shift the onset of density instabilities to larger θ and stabilize intermediate fillings in the regime where half filling is unstable in the ground state. This leads to phase-separated states consisting of empty and fully filled regions that resemble the experimentally observed "self-bound insulator." In a harmonic trap, similar structures also emerge from phase coexistence associated with the underlying first-order transition.
Recent experiments on molecular droplets have opened a new frontier of self-organization in strongly dipolar quantum matter. Microwave-dressing of polar molecules permits to tune both the strength and the angular structure of long-range interactions, potentially promoting a rich spectrum of quantum phases, from superfluid droplets with varying geometry and insulating or supersolid droplet arrays to strongly correlated crystals of individual molecules. Using path-integral Monte Carlo simulations of large molecular ensembles, we demonstrate that experimentally observed droplet arrays emerge as a metastable non-equilibrium state from the quenching of a gas-droplet phase transition under entirely broken rotational symmetry of the microwave-induced interaction potential. We moreover find that a crystalline phase of molecules, predicted for antidipolar interactions, is absent under conditions of recent experiments. This is traced back to the lack of angular symmetry in currently employed microwave-dressing, which qualitatively reshapes the many-body energy landscape and cannot be captured by effective scalar interaction parameters. Our results provide the first direct comparison of ab initio simulations and experiments and establish interaction anisotropy as a key aspect of molecular quantum gases.