The weakly coupled quasi-one-dimensional spin ladder compound (CH$_3$)$_2$CHNH$_3$CuCl$_3$ is studied by neutron scattering in magnetic fields exceeding the critical field of Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons. Commensurate long-range order and the associated Goldstone mode are detected and found to be similar to those in a reference 3D quantum magnet. However, for the upper two massive magnon branches the observed behavior is totally different, culminating in a drastic collapse of excitation bandwidth beyond the transition point.
We develop an approach to describe antiferromagnetic magnons on a bipartite lattice supporting the N{e}el state using fractionalized degrees of freedom typically inherent to quantum spin liquids. In particular we consider a long-range magnetically ordered state of interacting two-dimensional quantum spin$-1/2$ models using the Chern-Simons (CS) fermion representation of interacting spins. The interaction leads to Cooper instability and pairing of CS fermions, and to CS superconductivity which spontaneously violates the continuous $mathrm{U}(1)$ symmetry generating a linearly-dispersing gapless Nambu-Goldstone mode due to phase fluctuations. We evaluate this mode and show that it is in high-precision agreement with magnons of the corresponding N{e}el antiferromagnet irrespective to the lattice symmetry. Using the fermion formulation of a system with competing interactions, we show that the frustration gives raise to nontrivial long-range four, six, and higher-leg interaction vertices mediated by the CS gauge field, which are responsible for restoring of the continuous symmetry at sufficiently strong frustration. We identify these new interaction vertices and discuss their implications to unconventional phase transitions. We also apply the proposed theory to a model of anyons that can be tuned continuously from fermions to bosons.
We measure the collective excitation spectrum of a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate using Bragg spectroscopy. The spin-orbit coupling is generated by Raman dressing of atomic hyperfine states. When the Raman detuning is reduced, mode softening at a finite momentum is revealed, which provides insight towards a supersolid-like phase transition. We find that for the parameters of our system, this softening stops at a finite excitation gap and is symmetric under a sign change of the Raman detuning. Finally, using a moving barrier that is swept through the BEC, we also show the effect of the collective excitation on the fluid dynamics.
In contrast to charge vortices in a superfluid, spin vortices in a ferromagnetic condensate move inertially (if the condensate has zero magnetization along an axis). The mass of spin vortices depends on the spin-dependent interactions, and can be measured as a part of experiments on how spin vortices orbit one another. For Rb87 in a 1 micron thick trap m_v is about 10^-21 kg.
We study topologically non-trivial excitations of a weakly interacting, spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in a two-dimensional square optical lattice, a system recently realized in experiment [W. Sun et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 150401 (2018)]. We focus on situations where the system is not subjected to a Zeeman field and thus does not exhibit nontrivial single-particle band topology. Of special interest then is the role of particle interaction as well as its interplay with the symmetry properties of the system in producing topologically non-trivial excitations. We find that the non-interacting system possesses a rich set of symmetries, including the $mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, the modified dihedral point group symmetry $tilde D_4$ and the nonsymmorphic symmetry. These combined symmetries ensure the existence of pairs of degenerate Dirac points at the edge of Brillouin zone for the single-particle energy bands. In the presence of particle interaction and with sufficient spin-orbit coupling, the atoms condense in a ground state with net magnetization which spontaneously breaks the $mathcal{PT}$ and $tilde D_4$ symmetry. We demonstrate that this symmetry breaking leads to a gap opening at the Dirac point for the Bogoliubov spectrum and consequentially topologically non-trivial excitations. We confirm the non-trivial topology by calculating the Chern numbers of the lowest excitation bands and show that gapless edge states form at the interface of systems characterized by different values of the Chern number.
Surface modes in a Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium atoms have been studied. We observed excitations of standing and rotating quadrupolar and octopolar modes. The modes were excited with high spatial and temporal resolution using the optical dipole force of a rapidly scanning laser beam. This novel technique is very flexible and should be useful for the study of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates and vortices.