We investigate the ground states of spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) with spin–orbit coupling in a radially periodic potential by numerically solving the coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations. In the radially periodic potential, we first demonstrate that spin–orbit-coupled antiferromagnetic BECs support a multiring petal phase. Polar–core vortex can be observed from phase profiles, which is manifested as circularly symmetric distribution. We further show that spin–orbit coupling can induce multiring soliton structure in ferromagnetic BECs. It is confirmed especially that the wave-function phase of the ring corresponding to uniform distribution satisfies the rotational symmetry, and the wave-function phase of the ring corresponding to partial splitting breaks the rotational symmetry. Adjusting the spin–orbit coupling strength can control the number of petal in antiferromagnetic BECs and the winding numbers of wave-function in ferromagnetic BECs. Finally, we discuss effects of spin-independent and spin-dependent interactions on the ground states.
We investigate the ground states of spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) with spin–orbit coupling in a radially periodic potential by numerically solving the coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations. In the radially periodic potential, we first demonstrate that spin–orbit-coupled antiferromagnetic BECs support a multiring petal phase. Polar–core vortex can be observed from phase profiles, which is manifested as circularly symmetric distribution. We further show that spin–orbit coupling can induce multiring soliton structure in ferromagnetic BECs. It is confirmed especially that the wave-function phase of the ring corresponding to uniform distribution satisfies the rotational symmetry, and the wave-function phase of the ring corresponding to partial splitting breaks the rotational symmetry. Adjusting the spin–orbit coupling strength can control the number of petal in antiferromagnetic BECs and the winding numbers of wave-function in ferromagnetic BECs. Finally, we discuss effects of spin-independent and spin-dependent interactions on the ground states.
We consider two-dimensional spin-orbit-coupled atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in a radially periodic potential. The system supports different types of stable self-sustained states including radially symmetric vorticity-carrying modes with different topological charges in two spinor components that may have multiring profiles and at the same time remain remarkably stable for repulsive interactions. Solitons of the second type show persistent rotation with constant angular frequency. They can be stable for both repulsive and attractive interatomic interactions. Because of the inequivalence between clockwise and counterclockwise rotation directions introduced by spin-orbit coupling, the properties of such solitons strongly differ for positive and negative rotation frequencies. The collision of solitons located in the same or different rings is accompanied by a change of the rotation frequency that depends on the phase difference between colliding solitons.
Abstract We consider the ground state properties of SU(3) spin–orbit-coupled (SOC) Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) with soft-core interaction trapped in radially periodic potential. By minimizing the energy of the condensate, the effects of spin–orbit coupling and soft-core long-range interaction on the ground-state structure of such a system have been investigated for ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin interaction cases. In the absence of soft-core interaction, our results show that the system has a rich variety of ground state phases, such as typical vortices, antivortices, domain wall and hexagonal vortex lattice. It is found that the spontaneous symmetry breaking and isolated density peaks appear in the system with the addition of soft-core interaction. We illustrate the physical mechanisms of different interactions in SU(3) SOC BECs.
Abstract We investigate the ground-state properties of spin–orbit (SO)-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates confined in a spin-dependent asymmetric potential composed of harmonic and quartic contributions. The combined effect of the two potentials gives rise to an effective spatially inhomogeneous Zeeman field along the z -direction, and the complex competition among SO coupling, interatomic interactions, and this effective field leads to the emergence of nontrivial topological phases and complex spin textures in the system. For weak interatomic interactions, as the SO coupling strength increases, the system undergoes a series of transitions between ground-state phases: from a spin-polarized state, to an Anderson–Toulouse (AT) vortex state, a high-order radial dark soliton state, and finally to a domain structure. For strong interatomic interactions, the condensate evolves from a spin-polarized state to an AT vortex state, and then to a spatially coexisting state of AT and Mermin–Ho vortices, which corresponds to a novel topological excitation in pseudospin space: a skyrmion-dominated texture embedded with circular-hyperbolic antimeron pairs, realizing the coexistence and nesting of multiple topological defects. For sufficiently strong SO coupling, both components eventually evolve into similar multiring-shaped higher-order radial dark soliton states, with the number of soliton rings increasing as the SO coupling strength increases. Our results enrich the ground-state phases and topological excitations of cold atomic systems and provide new insights for exploring and manipulating nontrivial topological excitations in such systems.
Realization of spinor Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical trap has made it possible to create a variety of topological nontrivial structures, due to the vector character of the order parameter. Recently, artificial spin-orbit coupling in the spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, owing to coupling between the spin and the center-of-mass motion of the atom, provides an unprecedented opportunity to search for novel quantum states. As is well known, the potential well in the Bose-Einstein condensate is adjustable. The toroidal trap is an important model potential because of its simplicity and richness in physics. In particular, the spinor Bose-Einstein condensate under the toroidal trap has brought an ideal platform for studying fascinating properties of a superfluid, such as persistent flow and symmetry-breaking localization. For the case of the spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate, the previous studies of the toroidal trap mainly focused on the two-component or antiferromagnetic case. However, in the presence of a toroidal trap, there remains an open question whether the combined effects of the spin-orbit coupling and rotation can produce previously unknown types of topological excitations in the ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate. In this work, by using quasi two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equations, we study the ground state structure of spin-orbit coupled rotating ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate in the toroidal trap. We concentrate on the effects of the spin-orbit coupling and the rotation on the ground states. The numerical results show that in the presence of a toroidal trap, the ground state structure is displayed as half-skyrmion chain with circular distribution. Adjusting the strength of spin-orbit coupling not only changes the number of half-skyrmion in the system, but also controls the symmetry of half-skyrmion with circular distribution. As the rotation frequency increases, the system undergoes the transitions from the plane wave to the half-skyrmion chain with circular distribution, and eventually developing the half-skyrmion phase of triangular lattice. Next, we examine the effect of spin-independent interaction on spin-orbit coupled rotating spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. As the spin-independent interaction increases, the topological defects in the condensate increase due to the variation of the local magnetic order. We also discuss the influence of well shape on the ground state structure. These topological structures can be detected via the time-of-flight absorption imaging technique. The spin-orbit coupled spinor Bose-Einstein condensate in the toroidal trap is an important quantum platform, which not only opens up a new avenue for exploring the exotic topological structures, but also is crucial for realizing the transitions among different ground states. This work paves the way for futureexploring the topological defects and the corresponding dynamical stability in quantum system subjected to the toroidal trap.
We consider two-dimensional spinor F = 1 Bose–Einstein condensates in two types of radially-periodic potentials with spin–orbit coupling, i.e. , spin-independent and spin-dependent radially-periodic potentials. For the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-independent radially-periodic potential, the density of each component exhibits the periodic density modulation along the azimuthal direction, which realizes the necklacelike state in the ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates. As the spin-exchange interaction increases, the necklacelike state gradually transition to the plane wave phase for the antiferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates with larger spin–orbit coupling. The competition of the spin-dependent radially-periodic potential, spin–orbit coupling, and spin-exchange interaction gives rise to the exotic ground-state phases when the Bose–Einstein condensates in a spin-dependent radially-periodic potential.
We consider a pseudospin-1/2 Bose–Einstein condensate with Rashba type of spin–orbit coupling and trapped in radially periodic potentials. The effects of spin–orbit coupling, amplitude of the lattice potential, and contact interaction, on the ground-state phases of the system are investigated numerically for two different types of radial lattices, i.e., with phase constant δ = 0 and π. We show that the system has a rich variety of ground-state phases, showing strong dependence on these controllable parameters. In addition, we find that for both types of radial lattices, such parameters can be used to induce desirable ground-state structures.