Exotic Virtual Magnetic Monopoles and Fields

Michael Ray, Emmi Ruokokoski, Saugat Kandel +2 more

Wu, Ruo-Yun, Ning Mao, Xiaolin Li +2 more

We investigate the dynamics of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate with spin-orbit coupling numerically and analytically. Under the drive of a weak segmented rotational external field, we observe that the system exhibits cyclic soliton motion; however, in contrast to the predictions of quasi-particle theory, the trajectory of the soliton center shows a distinct drift. The underlying mechanism of this anomalous drift is revealed: the moving soliton experiences a Lorentz force induced by a virtual magnetic monopole field in momentum space. We further calculate the phase evolution of the soliton during this cyclic motion and find that its geometric component comprises both an adiabatic Berry phase and a nonadiabatic Aharonov-Anandan phase. Notably, the Berry phase can be expressed in terms of the magnetic flux of the aforementioned virtual monopole field. Our findings hold implications for geometric phase theory and experiments on two-component Bose-Einstein condensates, and may establish a novel link between quantum geometry and soliton dynamics.

Xiang Gao, Yafen Cai, Shao-Jun Li +6 more

Magnetic monopoles have been realized as emergent quasiparticles in both condensed matter and ultracold atomic platforms, with growing interest in the coupling effects between the monopole and different magnetic quasiparticles. In this work, interaction effects between monopoles and magnons are investigated for an atomic pseudospin chain. We reveal that the monopole can excite a virtual magnon cloud in the paramagnetic chain, thereby giving rise to an unconventional type of polaron, the monopole-cored polaron (MCP). The MCP is composed of the monopole as the impurity core and the virtual magnon excitation as the dressing cloud. The magnon dressing facilitates the Dirac string excitation and impacts the monopole hopping. This induces an antitrapping effect of the MCP, which refers to the fact that the dressing enhances the mobility of the MCP, in contrast to the self-trapping of the common polarons. Moreover, heterogeneous bipolarons are shown to exist under the simultaneous doping of a north and a south monopole. The heterogeneous bipolaron possesses an inner degree of freedom composed of two identical impurities. Our investigation sheds light on the understanding of how the coupling between the impurity core and the dressing cloud can engineer the property of the polaron.

Edwin Norbeck

Li Ji, Yanmei Yu, Wu-Ming Liu

Magnetic monopoles describe isolated north or south magnetic poles. The practical detection of the free magnetic monopoles, due to their extremely heavy masses, remains challenging so far. However, Bose-Einstein condensates offer an ideal observable platform for probing monopoles. In particular, the recent realization of spin-orbit (SO) coupling, owing to its high controllability and tunability, provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore exotic structures and phase transitions of monopoles unrealizable elsewhere. Here we report Dirac monopoles attached to the polar-core vortex induced by SO coupling in ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensates, which can be readily observed via time of flight measurements in experiment. The results show that, a cyclic phase transition from Dirac monopoles with polar-core vortex to that with Mermin-Ho vortex, is induced by SO coupling. Our studies may open a new direction to realize exotic topological defects and phase transitions in quantum systems.

J. Chee, Wei-Jie Lu