Vortex and half-vortex stability in coherently driven spinor polariton fluid
Lorenzo Dominici, Jm M. Fellows, Stefano Donati, Dario Ballarini, Milena De Giorgi, Giorgi, F. M. Marchetti, Bruno Piccirillo, Lorenzo Marrucci, Alberto Bramati, Giuseppe Gigli, Marzena Hanna Szymańska, D. Sanvitto
Spinorial or multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates may sustain fractional quanta of circulation, vorticant topological excitations with half integer windings of phase and polarization. Matter-light quantum fluids, such as microcavity polaritons, represent a unique test bed for realising strongly interacting and out-of-equilibrium condensates. The direct access to the phase of their wavefunction enables us to pursue the quest of whether half vortices ---rather than full integer vortices--- are the fundamental topological excitations of a spinor polariton fluid. Here, we are able to directly generate by resonant pulsed excitations, a polariton fluid carrying either the half or full vortex states as initial condition, and to follow their coherent evolution using ultrafast holography. Surprisingly we observe a rich phenomenology that shows a stable evolution of a phase singularity in a single component as well as in the full vortex state, spiraling, splitting and branching of the initial cores under different regimes and the proliferation of many vortex anti-vortex pairs in self generated circular ripples. This allows us to devise the interplay of nonlinearity and sample disorder in shaping the fluid and driving the phase singularities dynamics
Spinorial or multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates may sustain fractional quanta of circulation, vorticant topological excitations with half integer windings of phase and polarization. Matter-light quantum fluids, such as microcavity polaritons, represent a unique test bed for realising strongly interacting and out-of-equilibrium condensates. The direct access to the phase of their wavefunction enables us to pursue the quest of whether half vortices ---rather than full integer vortices--- are the fundamental topological excitations of a spinor polariton fluid. Here, we are able to directly generate by resonant pulsed excitations, a polariton fluid carrying either the half or full vortex states as initial condition, and to follow their coherent evolution using ultrafast holography. Surprisingly we observe a rich phenomenology that shows a stable evolution of a phase singularity in a single component as well as in the full vortex state, spiraling, splitting and branching of the initial cores under different regimes and the proliferation of many vortex anti-vortex pairs in self generated circular ripples. This allows us to devise the interplay of nonlinearity and sample disorder in shaping the fluid and driving the phase singularities dynamics
We consider coherent states of weakly interacting bosons under the conditions of external resonant excitation, with a focus on a two-dimensional polariton fluid driven by a plane electromagnetic wave near the ground state. The coherent driving breaks the U(1) symmetry explicitly, which prevents the occurrence of quantum vortices in a uniform scalar condensate. Surprisingly, a spinor (two-component) system of the same kind admits topological excitations, such as domain walls of relative phase or confined half-vortex molecules, typical of a freely evolving spinor Bose system. Opposite-phase domains arise from the spontaneous breakdown of the spin symmetry (Z2). Domain walls form with time even when the initial state of the system is uniform or completely disordered; they fall into different topological types distinguished by the total phase variation in the transverse direction. One type of domain walls is similar to ``magnetic'' solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates and exhibits nonzero spin polarization whose sign depends on the direction of motion. Domain walls of the second type, by contrast, behave like monopoles with broken spatiotemporal symmetry and tend to move in certain preferred directions. The interaction of vortices and domain walls results in a long-range ordering of the system.
Quantum vortices, the quantized version of classical vortices, play a prominent role in superfluid and superconductor phase transitions. However, their exploration at a particle level in open quantum systems has gained considerable attention only recently. Here we study vortex pair interactions in a resonant polariton fluid created in a solid-state microcavity. By tracking the vortices on picosecond time scales, we reveal the role of nonlinearity, as well as of density and phase gradients, in driving their rotational dynamics. Such effects are also responsible for the split of composite spin-vortex molecules into elementary half-vortices, when seeding opposite vorticity between the two spinorial components. Remarkably, we also observe that vortices placed in close proximity experience a pull-push scenario leading to unusual scattering-like events that can be described by a tunable effective potential. Understanding vortex interactions can be useful in quantum hydrodynamics and in the development of vortex-based lattices, gyroscopes, and logic devices.
Abstract Quantized vortices appear in physical systems from superfluids and superconductors to liquid crystals and high energy physics. Unlike their scalar cousins, superfluids with complex internal structure can exhibit rich dynamics of decay and even fractional vorticity. Here, we experimentally and theoretically explore the creation and time evolution of vortex lines in the polar magnetic phase of a trapped spin-1 87Rb Bose–Einstein condensate. A process of phase-imprinting a nonsingular vortex, its decay into a pair of singular spinor vortices, and a rapid exchange of magnetic phases creates a pair of three-dimensional, singular singly-quantized vortex lines with core regions that are filled with atoms in the ferromagnetic phase. Atomic interactions guide the subsequent vortex dynamics, leading to core structures that suggest the decay of the singly-quantized vortices into half-quantum vortices.
We review the topic of quantized vortices in multicomponent Bose–Einstein condensates of dilute atomic gases, with an emphasis on the two-component condensates. First, we review the fundamental structure, stability and dynamics of a single vortex state in a slowly rotating two-component condensates. To understand recent experimental results, we use the coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations and the generalized nonlinear sigma model. An axisymmetric vortex state, which was observed by the JILA group, can be regarded as a topologically trivial skyrmion in the pseudospin representation. The internal, coherent coupling between the two components breaks the axisymmetry of the vortex state, resulting in a stable vortex molecule (a meron pair). We also mention unconventional vortex states and monopole excitations in a spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate. Next, we discuss a rich variety of vortex states realized in rapidly rotating two-component Bose–Einstein condensates. We introduce a phase diagram with axes of rotation frequency and the intercomponent coupling strength. This phase diagram reveals unconventional vortex states such as a square lattice, a double-core lattice, vortex stripes and vortex sheets, all of which are in an experimentally accessible parameter regime. The coherent coupling leads to an effective attractive interaction between two components, providing not only a promising candidate to tune the intercomponent interaction to study the rich vortex phases but also a new regime to explore vortex states consisting of vortex molecules characterized by anisotropic vorticity. A recent experiment by the JILA group vindicated the formation of a square vortex lattice in this system.
We discuss some recent advances in the spin dynamics in photonic systems and polariton superfluids. In particular, we describe how the spin degree of freedom affects the collective behaviour of the half-soliton gas. First, we demonstrate that the anisotropy in the intra- and interspin interaction leads to the formation of a one-dimensional ordered phase: the topologicalWigner crystal. Second, we show that half-solitons behave as magnetic monopoles in effective magnetic fields. We study the transport properties and demonstrate a deviation from the usual Ohm's law for moderate values of the magnetic field. Introduction Photonic systems offer great opportunities for the study of quantum fluids, due to the possibility of creation of macroscopically occupied states with well-controlled properties by coherent excitation with lasers, and the full access to the wavefunction of the quantum fluid by well-established optical methods [1]. The main distinctive feature of quantum fluids as compared with classical ones are the topological defects, which, once created, cannot be removed by a continuous transformation. The most well-known example of such defect is a quantum vortex, which can appear in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) systems. Its analog in one-dimensional (1D) Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) is a soliton [2]. In fact, solitons are ubiquitous in systems described by the self-defocussing nonlinear Schrödinger equations. Specifically, for Bose gases, they are associated with the excitations of type II of the Lieb and Liniger theory. Spinor BECs (particularly with two pseudospin projections) offer a plethora of nonlinear spin effects, including half-integer topological defects possible in BECs with spin-anisotropic interactions [3]. Recent experimental work reports on the emergent monopole behaviour of half-solitons in the presence of an effective magnetic field [4]. In this chapter, we highlight some theoretical advances concerning not only the dynamics but also the many-body aspects of the physics of half-solitons. A Topological Wigner Crystal It is commonly accepted that the Wigner crystal is one of the most simple yet dramatic many-body effects. In the seminal work published in 1931 [5], Wigner showed that as a result of the competition between the long-ranged potential and kinetic energies, electrons spontaneously form a self-organized crystal at low densities, in a state that strongly differs from the Fermi gas. Experimental observations of this effect have been reported in carbon nanotubes [6].
In order to study the rotating strongly coupled Bose-Einstein condensations (BEC), a holographic model defined in an anti--de Sitter black hole that duals to a coupled two-component condensations in global U(1) symmetry broken phase with intercomponent coupling $\ensuremath{\eta}$ and internal coherent coupling $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ is proposed. By solving the dynamics of the model, we study the process of vortex formation and also the crossover from fractional to integer vortex phases. With changing only $\ensuremath{\eta}$ from zero to a finite value, fractional vortex lattices undergo a transition from hexagon to square lattice and finally to vortex sheets. By continuing to turn on $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$, we find that two fractional vortices in different components constitute dimers, and when $\ensuremath{\eta}$ transcends a critical value, multidimer like hexamer or tetramer made up of two and three dimers appears. As $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$ keeps increasing, some dimers rotate to adjust themselves and then constitute the lattice of integer vortices. Under an initial condition similar to a spinor BEC vortices dynamics experiment, the appearance of disordered turbulence is found in the process of fractional vortex generation, which matches the experimental observation. While in the formation process of integer vortices, the appearance of grooves is predicted.