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arXiv:2608.20327

Competing triangular and stripe supersolid orders in a dipolar quantum gas

Karthik Chandrashekara, Christian Gölzhäuser, Lily Platt, Jianshun Gao, Julian Kusch, Lennart Hoenen, Manon Ballu, Wyatt Kirkby, Lauriane Chomaz

cond-mat.quant-gasphysics.atom-phquant-phSubmitted Aug 20, 2026• Announced Aug 21, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Supersolids are exotic quantum states in which long-range phase coherence coexists, and may interplay, with emergent spatial orders. A particularly rich phase diagram featuring several competing spatial orders is predicted for dipolar supersolids with two-dimensional crystals, yet the experimental observation of this structural variety has remained limited. Here we experimentally form competing triangular and stripe density-modulated states in a quantum gas of highly magnetic atoms confined in a surfboard-shaped trap by tuning contact interaction strength and dipole orientation. We define a structural order parameter and study its statistical behavior. Thereby, we identify both the triangular and stripe phases and the transition between them, the associated critical behavior being marked by enhanced non-Gaussian fluctuations. Furthermore, we observe each spatial structure in both the phase-coherent supersolid regime and the phase-incoherent insulating one, near and far from the unmodulated-to-modulated transition, respectively. Our results establish a versatile platform in which multiple phases of the two-dimensional-supersolid phase diagram, and more generally, intertwined symmetry-breaking phenomena, can be investigated.

Comments
15 pages, 11 figures

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Supersolids are exotic quantum states in which long-range phase coherence coexists, and may interplay, with emergent spatial orders. A particularly rich phase diagram featuring several competing spatial orders is predicted for dipolar supersolids with two-dimensional crystals, yet the experimental observation of this structural variety has remained limited. Here we experimentally form competing triangular and stripe density-modulated states in a quantum gas of highly magnetic atoms confined in a surfboard-shaped trap by tuning contact interaction strength and dipole orientation. We define a structural order parameter and study its statistical behavior. Thereby, we identify both the triangular and stripe phases and the transition between them, the associated critical behavior being marked by enhanced non-Gaussian fluctuations. Furthermore, we observe each spatial structure in both the phase-coherent supersolid regime and the phase-incoherent insulating one, near and far from the unmodulated-to-modulated transition, respectively. Our results establish a versatile platform in which multiple phases of the two-dimensional-supersolid phase diagram, and more generally, intertwined symmetry-breaking phenomena, can be investigated.
Fluctuations typically destroy long-range order in two-dimensional (2D) systems, posing a fundamental challenge to the existence of exotic states like supersolids, which paradoxically combine solid-like structure with frictionless superfluid flow. While long-predicted, the definitive observation of a 2D supersolid has remained an outstanding experimental goal. Here, we report the observation of a supersolid stripe phase in a strongly dipolar quantum gas of erbium atoms confined to 2D. We directly image the periodic density modulation, confirming its global phase coherence through matter-wave interference and demonstrating its phase rigidity relevant to the low-energy Goldstone mode, consistent with numerical calculations. Through collective excitation measurements, we demonstrate the hydrodynamic behavior of the supersolid. This work highlights a novel mechanism for supersolid formation in low dimensions, and opens the door for future research on the intricate interplay between temperature, supersolidity, and dimensionality.
Motivated by a recent experimental work arXiv:2608.20327, we theoretically investigate the nature of phase transitions in a trapped dipolar quantum gas upon tuning the contact interaction strength and dipole orientation. Using extended Gross-Pitaevskii simulations including thermal and quantum effects, we map the phase diagram comprising unmodulated superfluids, triangular droplet arrays, and stripe states. We further characterize the order of the transitions separating them through imaginary-time hysteresis analysis. The unmodulated-to-modulated transition evolves from discontinuous to continuous with increasing dipole tilt before becoming discontinuous again at large tilts. The degree of continuity is further affected by particle number, temperature, and confinement. While continuous behavior generally correlates with the emergence of stripe states, this correspondence is not systematic, and finite-size effects also influence the continuity of the transition. The triangular-to-stripe transition is found to be discontinuous at small contact interaction strengths and becomes increasingly continuous upon approaching the unmodulated-to-modulated phase boundary. Our results reveal a tunable transition order in finite dipolar quantum gases and provide guidance for its experimental investigation.
This thesis discusses the experiments on 2D dipolar Bose gas of ultracold erbium atoms. Long-range and anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction induces complex orders in quantum many-body systems. Highly magnetic lanthanide atoms such as dysprosium and erbium have the largest magnetic moment in the periodic table, which has attracted significant attention in the past decades. Starting from quantum degenerate dysprosium and erbium atoms, exotic phases like quantum droplets, supersolid, dipolar quantum solid in the Hubbard regime have been studied. However, the 2D dipolar superfluid still remains understudied, despite being theoretically discussed for over two decades. Although tremendous theoretical proposals predict different phenomena in 2D dipolar superfluids, our first interest is to know how the superfluidity emerges in the 2D dipolar gases at finite temperatures. Our observations suggest that the superfluid transition can be well described by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition with an effective contact interaction as a function of dipolar orientation. With the 2D dipolar superfluid with strong DDI, we characterized the elementary excitation of the matter: the collective breathing mode. Our measurements establish how the competition between local and nonlocal interaction in strongly dipolar 2D superfluid retains quasi-scale invariance or strongly breaks scale invariance. By further searching the interaction parameters, we created stripes with global coherence, which are the first supersolid stripes in 2D. Experiments including measuring density fluctuation, coherence, and collective mode have been performed to understand the 2D supersolid. At last, we also observe unconventional light scattering from round-disk dipolar BECs, which provides new possibilities for atom optics.
Experiments on quantum degenerate Fermi gases of magnetic atoms and dipolar molecules begin to probe their broken-symmetry phases dominated by the long-range, anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction. Several candidate phases including the ppp-wave superfluid, the stripe density wave, and a supersolid have been proposed theoretically for two-dimensional spinless dipolar Fermi gases. Yet the phase boundaries predicted by different approximations vary greatly and a definitive phase diagram is still lacking. Here we present a theory that treats all competing many-body instabilities in the particle-particle and particle-hole channel on equal footing. We obtain the low-temperature phase diagram by numerically solving the functional renormalization-group flow equations and find a nontrivial density wave phase at small dipolar tilting angles and strong interactions, but no evidence of the supersolid phase. We also estimate the critical temperatures of the ordered phases.
Dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates represent a powerful platform for the exploration of quantum many-body phenomena arising from long-range interactions. A series of recent experiments has demonstrated the formation of supersolid states of matter. Subsequent theoretical works have shown that quantum fluctuations can affect the underlying phase transition and may lead to the emergence of supersolids with various lattice structures in dipolar condensates. In this work, we explore the signatures of such different geometries in confined finite condensates. In addition to previously found triangular lattices, our analysis reveals a rich spectrum of states, from honeycomb patterns to striped supersolids. By optimizing relevant parameters, we show that transitions between distinct supersolids should be observable in current experiments.
The competition of dipole-dipole and contact interactions leads to exciting new physics in dipolar gases, well illustrated by the recent observation of quantum droplets and rotons in dipolar condensates. We show that the combination of the roton instability and quantum stabilization leads under proper conditions to a novel regime that presents supersolid properties due to the coexistence of stripe modulation and phase coherence. In a combined experimental and theoretical analysis, we determine the parameter regime for the formation of coherent stripes, whose lifetime of a few tens of milliseconds is limited by the eventual destruction of the stripe pattern due to three-body losses. Our results open intriguing prospects for the development of long-lived dipolar supersolids.