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Quantum tidal locking in orbiting Bose-Einstein condensates

Yaoyuan Fan1,*, Shuoyu Shi2,*, Lang Cao1, Ziyue He1, Qiuxin Zhang3, Dong Hu3, Yu Wang3, Qing Wang1,†, Tianwei Zhou4,‡ et al.

Xiaoji Zhou1,5

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: qw1988@pku.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: zhou@lens.unifi.it
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Phys. Rev. A 113, 063306 – Published 4 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/35kh-qp2g

Abstract

Angular momentum coupling manifests widely in diverse physical systems, underpinning the emergent properties and collective dynamics across different scales. The tidal locking, which originates from the synchronization of rotational and orbital motions, has far-reaching impacts in celestial mechanics, reflecting fundamental processes of angular momentum transfer, energy dissipation, and evolution toward dynamical equilibrium. However, its counterpart in mesoscopic quantum fluids has remained largely unexplored. Here we demonstrate the emergence of quantum tidal locking in Bose-Einstein condensates undergoing central force motion in an anharmonic potential. The condensate follows a well-defined orbital trajectory in a static trap and experiences an effective rotating potential induced by the trap anharmonicity. The sustained geometric squeezing continuously deforms the condensate and drives a self-organized synchronization process, in which the intrinsic rotation gradually locks to the orbital motion. Numerical simulations further reveal the formation of a ring-shaped vortex array over longer timescales, arising from the coherent evolution of the rotating matter wave during the locking dynamics. Our findings establish quantum tidal locking in mesoscopic systems as a robust self-organized mechanism for generating and stabilizing circulating states.

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Phys. Rev. A 113, 063306– Published 4 June, 2026
  • Received 15 December 2025
  • Revised 15 April 2026
  • Accepted 20 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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