A supersolid made using photons

Anonymous

Carlo F. Barenghi, Thomas Bland, Nick G. Parker

Simon Lieu, Andrew Fu Wah Ho, Derek K. K. Lee +1 more

Maximilian Sohmen, Claudia Politi, Lauritz Klaus +4 more

In the short time since the first observation of supersolid states of ultracold dipolar atoms, substantial progress has been made in understanding the zero-temperature phase diagram and low-energy excitations of these systems. Less is known, however, about their finite-temperature properties, particularly relevant for supersolids formed by cooling through direct evaporation. Here, we explore this realm by characterizing the evaporative formation and subsequent decay of a dipolar supersolid by combining high-resolution in-trap imaging with time-of-flight observables. As our atomic system cools toward quantum degeneracy, it first undergoes a transition from thermal gas to a crystalline state with the appearance of periodic density modulation. This is followed by a transition to a supersolid state with the emergence of long-range phase coherence. Further, we explore the role of temperature in the development of the modulated state.

Jinwu Ye

We studied some phases and phase transitions in an extended boson Hubbard model slightly away from half filling on bipartite lattices such as honeycomb and square lattice. We find that in the insulating side, different kinds of supersolids are generic stable states slightly away from half filling. We propose a new kind of supersolid: valence bond supersolid. We show that the quantum phase transitions from solids to supersolids driven by a chemical potential are in the same universality class as that from a Mott insulator to a superfluid, therefore have exact exponents $ z=2, ν=1/2, η=0 $ (with logarithmic corrections). Comparisons with previous quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) simulations on some microscopic models on a square lattice are made. Implications on possible future QMC simulations are given.

Xuefeng Zhang, Yuchuan Wen, Sebastian Eggert