d-wave collapse and explosion of a dipolar bose-einstein condensate

Generation of higher harmonics in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in periodically modulated potentials

We consider a quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate with contact and long-range dipolar interactions, under the action of the time-periodic modulation applied to the harmonic-oscillator and optical-lattice trapping potentials. The modulation results in generation of a variety of harmonics in oscillations of the condensate's width and centre-of-mass coordinate. These include multiple and combinational harmonics, represented by sharp peaks in the system's spectra. Approximate analytical results are produced by the variational method, which are verified by systematic simulations of the underlying Gross-Pitaevskii equation. This article is part of the theme issue 'New trends in pattern formation and nonlinear dynamics of extended systems'.

Raman laser induced self-organization with topology in a dipolar condensate

We investigate the ground states of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) subject to Raman laser induced spin-orbit coupling with mean-field theory. Owing to the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and atom-atom interactions, the BEC presents remarkable self-organization behavior and thus hosts various exotic phases including vortex with discrete rotational symmetry, stripe with spin helix, and chiral lattices with C₄ symmetry. The peculiar chiral self-organized array of square lattice, which spontaneously breaks both U(1) and rotational symmetries, is observed when the contact interaction is considerable in comparison with the spin-orbit coupling. Moreover, we show that the Raman-induced spin-orbit coupling plays a crucial role in forming rich topological spin textures of the chiral self-organized phases by introducing a channel for atoms to turn on spin flipping between two components. The self-organization phenomena predicted here feature topology owing to spin-orbit coupling. In addition, we find long-lived metastable self-organized arrays with C₆ symmetry in the case of strong spin-orbit coupling. We also present a proposal to observe these predicted phases in ultracold atomic dipolar gases with laser-induced spin-orbit coupling, which may stimulate broad theoretical as well as experimental interest.

Ultrawide Dark Solitons and Droplet-Soliton Coexistence in a Dipolar Bose Gas with Strong Contact Interactions

We look into dark solitons in a quasi-1D dipolar Bose gas and in a quantum droplet. We derive the analytical solitonic solution of a Gross-Pitaevskii-like equation accounting for beyond mean-field effects. The results show there is a certain critical value of the dipolar interactions, for which the width of a motionless soliton diverges. Moreover, there is a peculiar solution of the motionless soliton with a nonzero density minimum. We also present the energy spectrum of these solitons with an additional excitation subbranch appearing. Finally, we perform a series of numerical experiments revealing the coexistence of a dark soliton inside a quantum droplet.

Dipolar physics: a review of experiments with magnetic quantum gases

Since the achievement of quantum degeneracy in gases of chromium atoms in 2004, the experimental investigation of ultracold gases made of highly magnetic atoms has blossomed. The field has yielded the observation of many unprecedented phenomena, in particular those in which long-range and anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions (DDIs) play a crucial role. In this review, we aim to present the aspects of the magnetic quantum-gas platform that make it unique for exploring ultracold and quantum physics as well as to give a thorough overview of experimental achievements. Highly magnetic atoms distinguish themselves by the fact that their electronic ground-state configuration possesses a large electronic total angular momentum. This results in a large magnetic moment and a rich electronic transition spectrum. Such transitions are useful for cooling, trapping, and manipulating these atoms. The complex atomic structure and large dipolar moments of these atoms also lead to a dense spectrum of resonances in their two-body scattering behaviour. These resonances can be used to control the interatomic interactions and, in particular, the relative importance of contact over dipolar interactions. These features provide exquisite control knobs for exploring the few- and many-body physics of dipolar quantum gases. The study of dipolar effects in magnetic quantum gases has covered various few-body phenomena that are based on elastic and inelastic anisotropic scattering. Various many-body effects have also been demonstrated. These affect both the shape, stability, dynamics, and excitations of fully polarised repulsive Bose or Fermi gases. Beyond the mean-field instability, strong dipolar interactions competing with slightly weaker contact interactions between magnetic bosons yield new quantum-stabilised states, among which are self-bound droplets, droplet assemblies, and supersolids. Dipolar interactions also deeply affect the physics of atomic gases with an internal degree of freedom as these interactions intrinsically couple spin and atomic motion. Finally, long-range dipolar interactions can stabilise strongly correlated excited states of 1D gases and also impact the physics of lattice-confined systems, both at the spin-polarised level (Hubbard models with off-site interactions) and at the spinful level (XYZ models). In the present manuscript, we aim to provide an extensive overview of the various related experimental achievements up to the present.

Bose-Einstein Condensation of Europium

We report the realization of a Bose-Einstein condensate of europium atoms, which is a strongly dipolar species with unique properties, a highly symmetric [Xe]4f^{7}6s^{2} ^{8}S_{7/2} electronic ground state and a hyperfine structure. By means of evaporative cooling in a crossed optical dipole trap, we produce a condensate of ^{151}Eu containing up to 5×10^{4} atoms. We estimate the scattering length of ^{151}Eu to be a_{s}=110(4)  a_{B} after comparing the velocities of expansion of condensates to different orientations of the atomic magnetic moments, where a_{B} is the Bohr radius. We observe deformation of the condensate in the vicinity of the Feshbach resonance at 1.32 G with a width of 10 mG.

Interplay between Binary and Three-Body Interactions and Enhancement of Stability in Trapless Dipolar Bose–Einstein Condensates

We investigate the nonlocal Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) equation with long-range dipole-dipole and contact interactions (including binary and three-body collisions). We address the impact of the three-body interaction on stabilizing trapless dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs). It is found that the dipolar BECs exhibit stability not only for the usual combination of attractive binary and repulsive three-body interactions, but also for the case when these terms have opposite signs. The trapless stability of the dipolar BECs may be further enhanced by time-periodic modulation of the three-body interaction imposed by means of Feshbach resonance. The results are produced analytically using the variational approach and confirmed by numerical simulations.

A digital feedback controller for stabilizing large electric currents to the ppm level for Feshbach resonance studies

Magnetic Feshbach resonances are a key tool in the field of ultracold quantum gases, but their full exploitation requires the generation of large, stable magnetic fields up to 1000 G with fractional stabilities of better than 10^-4. Design considerations for electromagnets producing these fields, such as optical access and fast dynamical response, mean that electric currents in excess of 100 A are often needed to obtain the requisite field strengths. We describe a simple digital proportional-integral-derivative current controller constructed using a field-programmable gate array and off-the-shelf evaluation boards that allows for gain scheduling, enabling optimal control of current sources with non-linear actuators. Our controller can stabilize an electric current of 337.5 A to the level of 7.5 × 10^-7 in an averaging time of 10 min and with a control bandwidth of 2 kHz.

Probing the Roton Excitation Spectrum of a Stable Dipolar Bose Gas

We measure the excitation spectrum of a stable dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate over a wide momentum range via Bragg spectroscopy. We precisely control the relative strength ε_{dd} of the dipolar to the contact interactions and observe that the spectrum increasingly deviates from the linear phononic behavior for increasing ε_{dd}. Reaching the dipolar-dominated regime ε_{dd}>1, we observe the emergence of a roton minimum in the spectrum and its softening towards instability. We characterize how the excitation energy and the strength of the density-density correlations at the roton momentum vary with ε_{dd}. Our findings are in excellent agreement with numerical calculations based on mean-field Bogoliubov theory. When including beyond-mean-field corrections, in the form of a Lee-Huang-Yang potential, we observe a quantitative deviation from the experiment, questioning the validity of such a description in the roton regime.

Instability of Rotationally Tuned Dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensates

The possibility of effectively inverting the sign of the dipole-dipole interaction, by fast rotation of the dipole polarization, is examined within a harmonically trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. Our analysis is based on the stationary states in the Thomas-Fermi limit, in the corotating frame, as well as direct numerical simulations in the Thomas-Fermi regime, explicitly accounting for the rotating polarization. The condensate is found to be inherently unstable due to the dynamical instability of collective modes. This ultimately prevents the realization of robust and long-lived rotationally tuned states. Our findings have major implications for experimentally accessing this regime.

Realization of a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas of Dipolar Atoms

We realize a two-component dipolar Fermi gas with tunable interactions, using erbium atoms. Employing a lattice-protection technique, we selectively prepare deeply degenerate mixtures of the two lowest spin states and perform high-resolution Feshbach spectroscopy in an optical dipole trap. We identify a comparatively broad Feshbach resonance and map the interspin scattering length in its vicinity. The Fermi mixture shows a remarkable collisional stability in the strongly interacting regime, providing a first step towards studies of superfluid pairing, crossing from Cooper pairs to bound molecules, in presence of dipole-dipole interactions.

Collective Spin Modes of a Trapped Quantum Ferrofluid

We report on the observation of a collective spin mode in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Initially, all spins point perpendicular to the external magnetic field. The lowest energy mode consists of a sinusoidal oscillation of the local spin around its original axis, with an oscillation amplitude that linearly depends on the spatial coordinates. The frequency of the oscillation is set by the zero-point kinetic energy of the BEC. The observations are in excellent agreement with hydrodynamic equations. The observed spin mode has a universal character, independent of the atomic spin and spin-dependent contact interactions.

Violent relaxation in quantum fluids with long-range interactions

Violent relaxation is a process that occurs in systems with long-range interactions. It has the peculiar feature of dramatically amplifying small perturbations, and rather than driving the system to equilibrium, it instead leads to slowly evolving configurations known as quasistationary states that fall outside the standard paradigm of statistical mechanics. Violent relaxation was originally identified in gravity-driven stellar dynamics; here, we extend the theory into the quantum regime by developing a quantum version of the Hamiltonian mean field (HMF) model which exemplifies many of the generic properties of long-range interacting systems. The HMF model can either be viewed as describing particles interacting via a cosine potential, or equivalently as the kinetic XY model with infinite-range interactions, and its quantum fluid dynamics can be obtained from a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We show that singular caustics that form during violent relaxation are regulated by interference effects in a universal way described by Thom's catastrophe theory applied to waves and this leads to emergent length scales and timescales not present in the classical problem. In the deep quantum regime we find that violent relaxation is suppressed altogether by quantum zero-point motion. Our results are relevant to laboratory studies of self-organization in cold atomic gases with long-range interactions.

Observation of Roton Mode Population in a Dipolar Quantum Gas

The concept of a roton, a special kind of elementary excitation, forming a minimum of energy at finite momentum, has been essential to understand the properties of superfluid ⁴He 1. In quantum liquids, rotons arise from the strong interparticle interactions, whose microscopic description remains debated 2. In the realm of highly-controllable quantum gases, a roton mode has been predicted to emerge due to magnetic dipole-dipole interactions despite of their weakly-interacting character 3. This prospect has raised considerable interest 4-12; yet roton modes in dipolar quantum gases have remained elusive to observations. Here we report experimental and theoretical studies of the momentum distribution in Bose-Einstein condensates of highly-magnetic erbium atoms, revealing the existence of the long-sought roton mode. Following an interaction quench, the roton mode manifests itself with the appearance of symmetric peaks at well-defined finite momentum. The roton momentum follows the predicted geometrical scaling with the inverse of the confinement length along the magnetisation axis. From the growth of the roton population, we probe the roton softening of the excitation spectrum in time and extract the corresponding imaginary roton gap. Our results provide a further step in the quest towards supersolidity in dipolar quantum gases 13.

The phase diagram and stability of trapped D-dimensional spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate

By variational analysis and direct numerical simulation, we study the phase transition and stability of a trapped D-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate with spin-orbit coupling. The complete phase and stability diagrams of the system are presented in full parameter space, while the collapse dynamics induced by the mean-filed attraction and the mechanism for stabilizing the collapse by spin-orbit coupling are illustrated explicitly. Particularly, a full and deep understanding of the dependence of phase transition and stability mechanism on geometric dimensionality and external trap potential is revealed. It is shown that the spin-orbit coupling can modify the dispersion relations, which can balance the mean-filed attractive interaction and result in a spin polarized or overlapped state to stabilize the collapse, then changes the collapsing threshold dependent on the geometric dimensionality and external trap potential. Moreover, from 2D to 3D system, the mean-field attraction for inducing the collapse is reduced and the collapse speed is enhanced, namely, the collapse can be more easily stabilized in 2D system. That is, the collapse can be manipulated by adjusting the spin-orbit coupling, Raman coupling, geometric dimensionality and the external trap potential, which can provide a possible way for elaborating the collapse dynamics experimentally.

Cross-symmetric dipolar-matter-wave solitons in double-well chains

We consider a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in an array of two-well systems with an arbitrary orientation of the dipoles relative to the system's axis. The system can be built as a chain of local traps sliced into two parallel lattices by a repelling laser sheet. It is modeled by a pair of coupled discrete Gross-Pitaevskii equations, with dipole-dipole self-interactions and cross interactions. When the dipoles are not polarized perpendicular or parallel to the lattice, the cross interaction is asymmetric, replacing the familiar symmetric two-component discrete solitons by two new species of cross-symmetric ones, viz., on-site- and off-site-centered solitons, which are strongly affected by the orientation of the dipoles and separation between the parallel lattices. A very narrow region of intermediate asymmetric discrete solitons is found at the boundary between the on- and off-site families. Two different types of solitons in the PT-symmetric version of the system are constructed too, and stability areas are identified for them.

Classical Fractals and Quantum Chaos in Ultracold Dipolar Collisions

We examine a dipolar-gas model to address fundamental issues regarding the correspondence between classical chaos and quantum observations in ultracold dipolar collisions. The theoretical model consists of a short-range Lennard-Jones potential well with an anisotropic, long-range dipole-dipole interaction between two atoms. Both the classical and quantum dynamics are explored for the same Hamiltonian of the system. The classical chaotic scattering is revealed by the fractals developed in the scattering function (defined as the final atom separation as a function of initial conditions), while the quantum chaotic features lead to the repulsion of the eigenphases from the corresponding quantum S matrix. The nearest-eigenphase-spacing statistics have an intermediate behavior between the Poisson and the Wigner-Dyson distributions. The character of the distribution can be controlled by changing an effective Planck constant or the dipole moment. The degree of quantum chaos shows a good correspondence with the overall average of the classical scattering function. The results presented here also provide helpful insights for understanding the role of the inherent dipole-dipole interaction in the currently ongoing experiments on ultracold collisions of highly magnetic atoms.

Vortices and vortex lattices in quantum ferrofluids

The experimental realization of quantum-degenerate Bose gases made of atoms with sizeable magnetic dipole moments has created a new type of fluid, known as a quantum ferrofluid, which combines the extraordinary properties of superfluidity and ferrofluidity. A hallmark of superfluids is that they are constrained to rotate through vortices with quantized circulation. In quantum ferrofluids the long-range dipolar interactions add new ingredients by inducing magnetostriction and instabilities, and also affect the structural properties of vortices and vortex lattices. Here we give a review of the theory of vortices in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, exploring the interplay of magnetism with vorticity and contrasting this with the established behaviour in non-dipolar condensates. We cover single vortex solutions, including structure, energy and stability, vortex pairs, including interactions and dynamics, and also vortex lattices. Our discussion is founded on the mean-field theory provided by the dipolar Gross-Pitaevskii equation, ranging from analytic treatments based on the Thomas-Fermi (hydrodynamic) and variational approaches to full numerical simulations. Routes for generating vortices in dipolar condensates are discussed, with particular attention paid to rotating condensates, where surface instabilities drive the nucleation of vortices, and lead to the emergence of rich and varied vortex lattice structures. We also present an outlook, including potential extensions to degenerate Fermi gases, quantum Hall physics, toroidal systems and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.

Droplets of Trapped Quantum Dipolar Bosons

Strongly interacting systems of dipolar bosons in three dimensions confined by harmonic traps are analyzed using the exact path integral ground-state Monte Carlo method. By adding a repulsive two-body potential, we find a narrow window of interaction parameters leading to stable ground-state configurations of droplets in a crystalline arrangement. We find that this effect is entirely due to the interaction present in the Hamiltonian without resorting to additional stabilizing mechanisms or specific three-body forces. We analyze the number of droplets formed in terms of the Hamiltonian parameters, relate them to the corresponding s-wave scattering length, and discuss a simple scaling model for the density profiles. Our results are in qualitative agreement with recent experiments showing a quantum Rosensweig instability in trapped Dy atoms.

Persistent Superfluid Flow Arising from the He-McKellar-Wilkens Effect in Molecular Dipolar Condensates

We show that the He-McKellar-Wilkens effect can induce a persistent flow in a Bose-Einstein condensate of polar molecules confined in a toroidal trap, with the dipolar interaction mediated via an electric dipole moment. For Bose-Einstein condensates of atoms with a magnetic dipole moment, we show that although it is theoretically possible to induce persistent flow via the Aharonov-Casher effect, the strength of the electric field required is prohibitive. We also outline an experimental geometry tailored specifically for observing the He-McKellar-Wilkens effect in toroidally trapped condensates.

Atom-Pair Kinetics with Strong Electric-Dipole Interactions

Rydberg-atom ensembles are switched from a weakly to a strongly interacting regime via adiabatic transformation of the atoms from an approximately nonpolar into a highly dipolar quantum state. The resultant electric dipole-dipole forces are probed using a device akin to a field ion microscope. Ion imaging and pair-correlation analysis reveal the kinetics of the interacting atoms. Dumbbell-shaped pair-correlation images demonstrate the anisotropy of the binary dipolar force. The dipolar C_{3} coefficient, derived from the time dependence of the images, agrees with the value calculated from the permanent electric-dipole moment of the atoms. The results indicate many-body dynamics akin to disorder-induced heating in strongly coupled particle systems.

Exotic vortex lattices in a rotating binary dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate

In the last decade, considerable advances have been made in the investigation of dipolar quantum gases. Previous theoretical investigations of a rotating binary dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate, where only one component possesses dipole moment, were mainly focused on two special orientations of the dipoles: perpendicular or parallel to the plane of motion. Here we study the ground-state and rotational properties of such a system for an arbitrary orientation of the dipoles. We demonstrate the ground-state vortex structures depend strongly on the relative strength between dipolar and contact interactions and the rotation frequency, as well as on the orientation of the dipoles. In the absence of rotation, the tunable dipolar interaction can be used to induce the squeezing or expansion of the cloud, and to derive the phase transition between phase coexistence and separation. Under finite rotation, the system is found to exhibit exotic ground-state vortex configurations, such as kernel-shell, vortex necklace, and compensating stripe vortex structures. We also check the validity of the Feynman relation, and find no significant deviations from it. The obtained results open up alternate ways for the quantum control of dipolar quantum gases.

Dynamical stability of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates with temporal modulation of the s-wave scattering length

We study the stabilization properties of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate by temporal modulation of short-range two-body interaction. Through both analytical and numerical methods, we analyze the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation with short-range two-body and long-range, nonlocal, dipolar interaction terms. We derive the equation of motion and effective potential of the dipolar condensate by variational method. We show that there is an enhancement of the condensate stability due to the inclusion of dipolar interaction in addition to the two-body contact interaction. We also show that the stability of the dipolar condensate increases in the presence of time varying two-body contact interaction; the temporal modification of the contact interaction prevents the collapse of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. Finally we confirm the semi-analytical prediction through the direct numerical simulations of the governing equation.

Emergence of Chaotic Scattering in Ultracold Er and Dy

We show that for ultracold magnetic lanthanide atoms chaotic scattering emerges due to a combination of anisotropic interaction potentials and Zeeman coupling under an external magnetic field. This scattering is studied in a collaborative experimental and theoretical effort for both dysprosium and erbium. We present extensive atom-loss measurements of their dense magnetic Feshbach-resonance spectra, analyze their statistical properties, and compare to predictions from a random-matrix-theory-inspired model. Furthermore, theoretical coupled-channels simulations of the anisotropic molecular Hamiltonian at zero magnetic field show that weakly bound, near threshold diatomic levels form overlapping, uncoupled chaotic series that when combined are randomly distributed. The Zeeman interaction shifts and couples these levels, leading to a Feshbach spectrum of zero-energy bound states with nearest-neighbor spacings that changes from randomly to chaotically distributed for increasing magnetic field. Finally, we show that the extreme temperature sensitivity of a small, but sizable fraction of the resonances in the Dy and Er atom-loss spectra is due to resonant nonzero partial-wave collisions. Our threshold analysis for these resonances indicates a large collision-energy dependence of the three-body recombination rate.

Two-component dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate in concentrically coupled annular traps

Dipolar Bosonic atoms confined in external potentials open up new avenues for quantum-state manipulation and will contribute to the design and exploration of novel functional materials. Here we investigate the ground-state and rotational properties of a rotating two-component dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate, which consists of both dipolar bosonic atoms with magnetic dipole moments aligned vertically to the condensate and one without dipole moments, confined in concentrically coupled annular traps. For the nonrotational case, it is found that the tunable dipolar interaction can be used to control the location of each component between the inner and outer rings, and to induce the desired ground-state phase. Under finite rotation, it is shown that there exists a critical value of rotational frequency for the nondipolar case, above which vortex state can form at the trap center, and the related vortex structures depend strongly on the rotational frequency. For the dipolar case, it is found that various ground-state phases and the related vortex structures, such as polygonal vortex clusters and vortex necklaces, can be obtained via a proper choice of the dipolar interaction and rotational frequency. Finally, we also study and discuss the formation process of such vortex structures.

Number fluctuations of a dipolar condensate: anisotropy and slow approach to the thermodynamic regime

We present a theory for the number fluctuations of a quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate measured with finite resolution cells. We show that when the dipoles are tilted to have a component parallel to the plane of the trap, the number fluctuations become anisotropic, i.e., depend on the in-plane orientation of the measurement cell. We develop analytic results for the quantum and thermal fluctuations applicable to the cell sizes accessible in experiments. We show that as cell size is increased the thermodynamic fluctuation result is approached much more slowly than in condensates with short range interactions, so experiments would not require high numerical aperture imaging to observe the predicted effect.

Anisotropic relaxation dynamics in a dipolar Fermi gas driven out of equilibrium

We report on the observation of a large anisotropy in the rethermalization dynamics of an ultracold dipolar Fermi gas driven out of equilibrium. Our system consists of an ultracold sample of strongly magnetic 167Er fermions, spin polarized in the lowest Zeeman sublevel. In this system, elastic collisions arise purely from universal dipolar scattering. Based on cross-dimensional rethermalization experiments, we observe a strong anisotropy of the scattering, which manifests itself in a large angular dependence of the thermal relaxation dynamics. Our result is in good agreement with recent theoretical predictions. Furthermore, we measure the rethermalization rate as a function of temperature for different angles and find that the suppression of collisions by Pauli blocking is not influenced by the dipole orientation.

Unconventional symmetries of Fermi liquid and Cooper pairing properties with electric and magnetic dipolar fermions

The rapid experimental progress of ultra-cold dipolar fermions opens up a whole new opportunity to investigate novel many-body physics of fermions. In this article, we review theoretical studies of the Fermi liquid theory and Cooper pairing instabilities of both electric and magnetic dipolar fermionic systems from the perspective of unconventional symmetries. When the electric dipole moments are aligned by the external electric field, their interactions exhibit the explicit d(r(2)-3z(2)) anisotropy. The Fermi liquid properties, including the single-particle spectra, thermodynamic susceptibilities and collective excitations, are all affected by this anisotropy. The electric dipolar interaction provides a mechanism for the unconventional spin triplet Cooper pairing, which is different from the usual spin-fluctuation mechanism in solids and the superfluid (3)He. Furthermore, the competition between pairing instabilities in the singlet and triplet channels gives rise to a novel time-reversal symmetry breaking superfluid state. Unlike electric dipole moments which are induced by electric fields and unquantized, magnetic dipole moments are intrinsic proportional to the hyperfine-spin operators with a Lande factor. Its effects even manifest in unpolarized systems exhibiting an isotropic but spin-orbit coupled nature. The resultant spin-orbit coupled Fermi liquid theory supports a collective sound mode exhibiting a topologically non-trivial spin distribution over the Fermi surface. It also leads to a novel p-wave spin triplet Cooper pairing state whose spin and orbital angular momentum are entangled to the total angular momentum J = 1 dubbed the J-triplet pairing. This J-triplet pairing phase is different from both the spin-orbit coupled (3)He-B phase with J = 0 and the spin-orbit decoupled (3)He-A phase.

Wave instabilities in the presence of non vanishing background in nonlinear Schrödinger systems

We investigate wave collapse ruled by the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation in 1+1 dimensions, for localized excitations with non-zero background, establishing through virial identities a new criterion for blow-up. When collapse is arrested, a semiclassical approach allows us to show that the system can favor the formation of dispersive shock waves. The general findings are illustrated with a model of interest to both classical and quantum physics (cubic-quintic NLS equation), demonstrating a radically novel scenario of instability, where solitons identify a marginal condition between blow-up and occurrence of shock waves, triggered by arbitrarily small mass perturbations of different sign.

Controlling interactions between highly magnetic atoms with Feshbach resonances

This paper reviews current experimental and theoretical progress in the study of dipolar quantum gases of ground and meta-stable atoms with a large magnetic moment. We emphasize the anisotropic nature of Feshbach resonances due to coupling to fast-rotating resonant molecular states in ultracold s-wave collisions between magnetic atoms in external magnetic fields. The dramatic differences in the distribution of resonances of magnetic (7)S3 chromium and magnetic lanthanide atoms with a submerged 4f shell and non-zero electron angular momentum is analyzed. We focus on dysprosium and erbium as important experimental advances have been recently made to cool and create quantum-degenerate gases for these atoms. Finally, we describe progress in locating resonances in collisions of meta-stable magnetic atoms in electronic P-states with ground-state atoms, where an interplay between collisional anisotropies and spin-orbit coupling exists.

Observation of dipole-induced spin texture in an 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate

We report the formation of spin texture resulting from the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction in a spin-2 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. The spinor condensate is prepared in the transversely polarized spin state and the time evolution is observed under a magnetic field of 90 mG with a gradient of 3  mG/cm using Stern-Gerlach imaging. The experimental results are compared with numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which reveals that the observed spatial modulation of the longitudinal magnetization is due to the spin precession in an effective magnetic field produced by the dipole-dipole interaction. These results show that the dipole-dipole interaction has considerable effects even on spinor condensates of alkali metal atoms.

Quantum quasicrystals of spin-orbit-coupled dipolar bosons

We study quasi-two-dimensional dipolar Bose gases in which the bosons experience a Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that the degenerate dispersion minimum due to the spin-orbit coupling, combined with the long-range dipolar interaction, can stabilize a number of quantum crystalline and quasicrystalline ground states. Coupling the bosons to a fermionic species can further stabilize these phases. We estimate that the crystalline and quasicrystalline phases should be detectable in realistic dipolar condensates, e.g., dysprosium, and discuss their symmetries and excitations.

Anisotropic and long-range vortex interactions in two-dimensional dipolar Bose gases

We perform a theoretical study into how dipole-dipole interactions modify the properties of superfluid vortices within the context of a two-dimensional atomic Bose gas of co-oriented dipoles. The reduced density at a vortex acts like a giant antidipole, changing the density profile and generating an effective dipolar potential centred at the vortex core whose most slowly decaying terms go as 1/ρ(2) and ln(ρ)/ρ(3). These effects modify the vortex-vortex interaction which, in particular, becomes anisotropic for dipoles polarized in the plane. Striking modifications to vortex-vortex dynamics are demonstrated, i.e., anisotropic corotation dynamics and the suppression of vortex annihilation.

Anisotropic excitation spectrum of a dipolar quantum Bose gas

We measure the excitation spectrum of a dipolar chromium Bose-Einstein condensate with Raman-Bragg spectroscopy. The energy spectrum depends on the orientation of the dipoles with respect to the excitation momentum, demonstrating an anisotropy that originates from the dipole-dipole interactions between the atoms. We compare our results with the Bogoliubov theory based on the local density approximation and, at large excitation wavelengths, with the numerical simulations of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Our results show an anisotropy of the speed of sound.

Bose-Einstein condensation of erbium

We report on the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation of erbium atoms and on the observation of magnetic Feshbach resonances at low magnetic fields. By means of evaporative cooling in an optical dipole trap, we produce pure condensates of 168Er, containing up to 7×10(4) atoms. Feshbach spectroscopy reveals an extraordinary rich loss spectrum with six loss resonances already in a narrow magnetic-field range up to 3 G. Finally, we demonstrate the application of a low-field Feshbach resonance to produce a tunable dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate and we observe its characteristic d-wave collapse.

Rydberg-induced solitons: three-dimensional self-trapping of matter waves

We propose a scheme for the creation of stable three-dimensional bright solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates, i.e., the matter-wave analog of so-called spatiotemporal "light bullets." Off-resonant dressing to Rydberg nD states is shown to provide nonlocal attractive interactions, leading to self-trapping of mesoscopic atomic clouds by a collective excitation of a Rydberg atom pair. We present detailed potential calculations and demonstrate the existence of stable solitons under realistic experimental conditions by means of numerical simulations.

How to observe dipolar effects in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We propose an experiment which proves the possibility of spinning gaseous media via dipolar interactions in the spirit of the famous Einstein-de Haas effect for ferromagnets. The main idea is to utilize resonances that we find in spinor condensates of alkali atoms while these systems are placed in an oscillating magnetic field. A significant transfer of angular momentum from spin to motional degrees of freedom observed on resonance is a spectacular manifestation of dipolar effects in spinor condensates.

Anisotropic superfluidity in a dipolar Bose gas

We study the superfluid character of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (DBEC) in a quasi-two dimensional geometry. We consider the dipole polarization to have some nonzero projection into the plane of the condensate so that the effective interaction is anisotropic in this plane, yielding an anisotropic dispersion relation. By performing direct numerical simulations of a probe moving through the DBEC, we observe the sudden onset of drag or creation of vortex-antivortex pairs at critical velocities that depend strongly on the direction of the probe's motion. This anisotropy emerges because of the anisotropic manifestation of a rotonlike mode in the system.

Spin relaxation and band excitation of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate in 2D optical lattices

We observe interband transitions mediated by dipole-dipole interactions for an array of 1D quantum gases of chromium atoms, trapped in a 2D optical lattice. Interband transitions occur when dipolar relaxation releases an energy larger than the lattice band gap. For symmetric lattice sites, and a magnetic field parallel to the lattice axis, we compare the measured dipolar relaxation rate with a Fermi golden rule calculation. Below a magnetic field threshold, we obtain an almost complete suppression of dipolar relaxation, leading to metastable 1D gases in the highest Zeeman state.

Interlayer superfluidity in bilayer systems of fermionic polar molecules

We consider fermionic polar molecules in a bilayer geometry where they are oriented perpendicularly to the layers, which permits both low inelastic losses and superfluid pairing. The dipole-dipole interaction between molecules of different layers leads to the emergence of interlayer superfluids. The superfluid regimes range from BCS-like fermionic superfluidity with a high Tc to Bose-Einstein (quasi-)condensation of interlayer dimers, thus exhibiting a peculiar BCS-Bose-Einstein condensation crossover. We show that one can cover the entire crossover regime under current experimental conditions.

Collective excitations of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate

We have measured the effect of dipole-dipole interactions on the frequency of a collective mode of a Bose-Einstein condensate. At relatively large numbers of atoms, the experimental measurements are in good agreement with zero temperature theoretical predictions based on the Thomas-Fermi approach. Experimental results obtained for the dipolar shift of a collective mode show a larger dependency to both the trap geometry and the atom number than the ones obtained when measuring the modification of the condensate aspect ratio due to dipolar forces. These findings are in good agreement with simulations based on a Gaussian ansatz.

Mesoscopic ensembles of polar bosons in triple-well potentials

Mesoscopic dipolar Bose gases in triple-well potentials offer a minimal system for the analysis of the nonlocal character of the dipolar interaction. We show that this nonlocal character may be clearly revealed by a variety of possible ground-state phases. In addition, an appropriate control of short-range and dipolar interactions may lead to novel scenarios for the dynamics of polar bosons in lattices, including the dynamical creation of mesoscopic quantum superpositions, which may be employed in the design of Heisenberg-limited atom interferometers.

Control of the collapse of bimodal light beams by magnetically tunable birefringences

Using a system of coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations (CNLSEs), we show that nonlinear light propagation in self-focusing Kerr media can be controlled via a suitable combination of linear and circular birefringences. In particular, magneto-optical effects are taken as a specific physical example, which enables the introduction of both types of birefringences simultaneously via the joint action of the Cotton-Mouton and the Faraday effect. We demonstrate the efficient management of the collapse of (2 + 1)D beams in magneto-optic dielectric media, which may result in either the acceleration or the suppression of the collapse. However, our study also shows that a complete stabilization of the bimodal beams (i.e., the propagation of two-dimensional solitary waves) is not possible under the proposed conditions. The analysis is performed by directly numerically solving the CNLSEs, as well as by using the variational approximation, both showing consistent results. The investigated method allows high-power beam propagation in Kerr media while avoiding collapse, thus offering a viable alternative to the techniques applied in non-instantaneous and/or non-local nonlinear media.

Colliding Bose-Einstein condensates to observe Efimov physics

We explore the manifestation of Efimov physics through the collision energy dependence of the three-body scattering observables and propose that it can be measured by observing atom loss in collisions of Bose-Einstein condensates. Our study shows that log-periodic Efimov features in the scattering observables extend beyond the usual threshold regime to nonzero collision energies and result from two interfering pathways. Further, these oscillations have a one-to-one connection with the scattering length oscillations at zero energy and thus to Efimov states themselves.

Critical superfluid velocity in a trapped dipolar gas

We investigate the superfluid properties of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a fully three-dimensional trap. Specifically, we estimate a superfluid critical velocity for this system by applying the Landau criterion to its discrete quasiparticle spectrum. We test this critical velocity by direct numerical simulation of condensate depletion as a blue-detuned laser moves through the condensate. In both cases, the presence of the roton in the spectrum serves to lower the critical velocity beyond a critical particle number. Since the shape of the dispersion, and hence the roton minimum, is tunable as a function of particle number, we thereby propose an experiment that can simultaneously measure the Landau critical velocity of a dipolar BEC and demonstrate the presence of the roton in this system.

Magnetoroton softening in Rb spinor condensates with dipolar interactions

Superfluids with a tendency towards periodic order have both phonon- and rotonlike spectra. We show that magnetoroton softening occurs in 87Rb spinor condensates. A rich variety of dynamical instabilities emerges as a function of the magnetic field orientation and strength of the quadratic Zeeman shift. These instabilities are driven by an effective dipolar interaction modified dramatically by quasi-two-dimensionality and rapid Larmor precession.

Magneto-optical control of light collapse in bulk Kerr media

The Cotton-Mouton (Voigt) and Faraday effects induce adjustable linear and circular birefringence in optical media with external magnetic fields. We consider these effects as a technique for magneto-optical control of the transmission of bimodal light beams through Kerr-nonlinear crystals. Numerical analysis suggests that a properly applied magnetic field may accelerate, delay, or arrest the collapse of (2+1)D beams. Experimentally, the magnetic collapse acceleration is demonstrated in a bulk yttrium iron garnet (YIG) crystal.