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We present a theoretical study on the origin of some findings of recent experiments on sonic analogs of gravitational black holes. We focus on the realization of a black-hole lasing configuration, where the conclusive identification of stimulated Hawking radiation requires dealing with the implications of the nonstationary character of the setup. To isolate the basic mechanisms responsible for the observed behavior, we use a toy model where nonstationarity can be described in terms of departures from adiabaticity. Our approach allows studying which aspects of the characterization of black-hole lasing in static models are still present in a dynamical scenario. In particular, variations in the role of the dynamical instabilities can be traced. Arguments to conjecture the twofold origin of the detected amplification of sound are given: the differential effect of the instabilities on the mean field and on the quantum fluctuations gives some clues to separate a deterministic component from self-amplified Hawking radiation. The role of classical noise, present in the experimental setup, is also tackled: we discuss the emergence of differences with the effect of quantum fluctuations when various unstable modes are relevant to the dynamics.
Shaking optical lattices in a resonant manner offers an efficient and versatile method to devise artificial gauge fields and topological band structures for ultracold atomic gases. This was recently demonstrated through the experimental realization of the Harper-Hofstadter model, which combined optical superlattices and resonant time-modulations. Adding inter-particle interactions to these engineered band systems is expected to lead to strongly-correlated states with topological features, such as fractional Chern insulators. However, the interplay between interactions and external time-periodic drives typically triggers violent instabilities and uncontrollable heating, hence potentially ruling out the possibility of accessing such intriguing states of matter in experiments. In this work, we study the early-stage parametric instabilities that occur in systems of resonantly-driven Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices. We apply and extend an approach based on Bogoliubov theory [PRX 7, 021015 (2017)] to a variety of resonantly-driven band models, from a simple shaken Wannier-Stark ladder to the more intriguing driven-induced Harper-Hofstadter model. In particular, we provide ab initio numerical and analytical predictions for the stability properties of these topical models. This work sheds light on general features that could guide current experiments to stable regimes of operation.
We investigate the effects of vortex interaction on the formation of interference patterns in a coherent pair of two-dimensional Bose condensed clouds of ultra-cold atoms traveling in opposite directions subject to a harmonic trapping potential. We identify linear and nonlinear regimes in the dipole oscillations of the condensates according to the balance of internal and centre-of-mass energies of the clouds. Simulations of the collision of two clouds each containing a vortex with different winding number (charge) were carried out in these regimes in order to investigate the creation of varying interference patterns. The interaction between different vortex type can be clearly distinguished by those patterns.
The problem of understanding how a coherent, macroscopic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) emerges from the cooling of a thermal Bose gas has attracted significant theoretical and experimental interest over several decades. The pioneering achievement of BEC in weakly-interacting dilute atomic gases in 1995 was followed by a number of experimental studies examining the growth of the BEC number, as well as the development of its coherence. More recently there has been interest in connecting such experiments to universal aspects of nonequilibrium phase transitions, in terms of both static and dynamical critical exponents. Here, the spontaneous formation of topological structures such as vortices and solitons in quenched cold-atom experiments has enabled the verification of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicting the density of topological defects in continuous phase transitions, first proposed in the context of the evolution of the early universe. This chapter reviews progress in the understanding of BEC formation, and discusses open questions and future research directions in the dynamics of phase transitions in quantum gases.
Vortices are expected to exist in a supersolid but experimentally their detection can be difficult because the vortex cores are localized at positions where the local density is very low. We address here this problem by performing numerical simulations of a dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) in a pancake confinement at $T=0$ K and study the effect of quantized vorticity on the phases that can be realized depending upon the ratio between dipolar and short-range interaction. By increasing this ratio the system undergoes a spontaneous density modulation in the form of an ordered arrangement of multi-atom droplets. This modulated phase can be either a supersolid (SS) or a normal solid (NS). In the SS state droplets are immersed in a background of low-density superfluid and the system has a finite global superfluid fraction resulting in non-classical rotational inertia. In the NS state no such superfluid background is present and the global superfluid fraction vanishes. We propose here a protocol to create vortices in modulated phases of dipolar BEC by freezing into such phases a vortex-hosting superfluid (SF) state. The resulting system, depending upon the interactions strengths, can be either a SS or a NS To discriminate between these two possible outcome of a freezing experiment, we show that upon releasing of the radial harmonic confinement, the expanding vortex-hosting SS shows tell-tale quantum interference effects which display the symmetry of the vortex lattice of the originating SF, as opposed to the behavior of the NS which shows instead a ballistic radial expansion of the individual droplets. Such markedly different behavior might be used to prove the supersolid character of rotating dipolar condensates.
We investigate the quantum fluctuation effects in the vicinity of the critical point of a $p$-orbital bosonic system in a square optical lattice using Wilsonian renormalization group, where the $p$-orbital bosons condense at nonzero momenta and display rich phases including both time-reversal symmetry invariant and broken BEC states. The one-loop renormalization group analysis generates corrections to the mean-field phase boundaries. We also show the quantum fluctuations in the $p$-orbital system tend to induce the ordered phase but not destroy it via the the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism, which is qualitative different from the ordinary quantum fluctuation corrections to the mean-field phase boundaries in $s$-orbital systems. Finally we discuss the observation of these phenomena in the realistic experiment.