- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Density-and-phase domain walls in a condensate with dynamical gauge potential

Sayak Bhattacharjee1,2,*,†, Roderich Moessner2, and Shovan Dutta2,3

  • *Contact author: sayakbhattacharjee@stanford.edu
  • †Present address: Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L022058 – Published 9 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L022058

Abstract

We show how one can generate domain walls that separate high- and low-density regions with opposite momenta in the ground state of a harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate using a density-dependent gauge potential. Within a Gross-Pitaevskii framework, we elucidate the distinct roles of vector and scalar potentials and how they lead to synthetic electromagnetic fields that are localized at the domain wall. In particular, the kinetic energy cost of a steep density gradient is compensated by an electrostatic field that pushes particles away from a special value of density. We show numerically in one dimension that such a domain wall is more prominent for repulsive contact interactions, and becomes metastable at strong electric fields through a first-order phase transition that ends at a critical point as the field is reduced. We also provide simple variational Ansätze that reproduce this metastability. Our findings build on recent experimental developments and may be realized with cold atoms in a shaken optical lattice, providing insights into collective phenomena arising from dynamical gauge fields.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (47)

  1. E. Zohar, J. I. Cirac, and B. Reznik, Quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories using ultracold atoms in optical lattices, Rep. Prog. Phys. 79, 014401 (2016).
  2. U.-J. Wiese, Ultracold quantum gases and lattice systems: quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories, Ann. Phys. 525, 777 (2013).
  3. M. Dalmonte and S. Montangero, Lattice gauge theory simulations in the quantum information era, Contemp. Phys. 57, 388 (2016).
  4. W. L. Tan, P. Becker, F. Liu, G. Pagano, K. S. Collins, A. De, L. Feng, H. B. Kaplan, A. Kyprianidis, R. Lundgren et al., Domain-wall confinement and dynamics in a quantum simulator, Nat. Phys. 17, 742 (2021).
  5. M. Aidelsburger, S. Nascimbene, and N. Goldman, Artificial gauge fields in materials and engineered systems, C. R. Physique 19, 394 (2018).
  6. G. Jotzu, M. Messer, R. Desbuquois, M. Lebrat, T. Uehlinger, D. Greif, and T. Esslinger, Experimental realization of the topological haldane model with ultracold fermions, Nature (London) 515, 237 (2014).
  7. L. W. Clark, N. Schine, C. Baum, N. Jia, and J. Simon, Observation of laughlin states made of light, Nature (London) 582, 41 (2020).
  8. F. Görg, K. Sandholzer, J. Minguzzi, R. Desbuquois, M. Messer, and T. Esslinger, Realization of density-dependent Peierls phases to engineer quantized gauge fields coupled to ultracold matter, Nat. Phys. 15, 1161 (2019).
  9. C. Schweizer, F. Grusdt, M. Berngruber, L. Barbiero, E. Demler, N. Goldman, I. Bloch, and M. Aidelsburger, Floquet approach to Z2 lattice gauge theories with ultracold atoms in optical lattices, Nat. Phys. 15, 1168 (2019).
  10. U.-J. Wiese, Towards quantum simulating QCD, Nucl. Phys. A 931, 246 (2014).
  11. M. C. Banuls, R. Blatt, J. Catani, A. Celi, J. I. Cirac, M. Dalmonte, L. Fallani, K. Jansen, M. Lewenstein, S. Montangero et al., Simulating lattice gauge theories within quantum technologies, Eur. Phys. J. D 74, 165 (2020).
  12. G. Valentí-Rojas, N. Westerberg, and P. Öhberg, Synthetic flux attachment, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 033453 (2020).
  13. L. W. Clark, B. M. Anderson, L. Feng, A. Gaj, K. Levin, and C. Chin, Observation of density-dependent gauge fields in a Bose-Einstein condensate based on micromotion control in a shaken two-dimensional lattice, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 030402 (2018).
  14. K.-X. Yao, Z. Zhang, and C. Chin, Domain-wall dynamics in Bose–Einstein condensates with synthetic gauge fields, Nature (London) 602, 68 (2022).
  15. M. J. Edmonds, M. Valiente, G. Juzeliūnas, L. Santos, and P. Öhberg, Simulating an interacting gauge theory with ultracold Bose gases, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 085301 (2013).
  16. A. Frölian, C. S. Chisholm, E. Neri, C. R. Cabrera, R. Ramos, A. Celi, and L. Tarruell, Realizing a 1D topological gauge theory in an optically dressed BEC, Nature (London) 608, 293 (2022).
  17. G. F. Nataf, M. Guennou, J. M. Gregg, D. Meier, J. Hlinka, E. K. H. Salje, and J. Kreisel, Domain-wall engineering and topological defects in ferroelectric and ferroelastic materials, Nat. Rev. Phys. 2, 634 (2020).
  18. D. M. Evans, V. Garcia, D. Meier, and M. Bibes, Domains and domain walls in multiferroics, Phys. Sci. Rev. 5, 20190067 (2020).
  19. A. Vilenkin and E. P. S. Shellard, Cosmic Strings and Other Topological Defects (Cambridge University, Cambridge, 1994).
  20. K. Saikawa, A review of gravitational waves from cosmic domain walls, Universe 3, 40 (2017).
  21. G. Catalan, J. Seidel, R. Ramesh, and J. F. Scott, Domain wall nanoelectronics, Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 119 (2012).
  22. Y. Song, X. Shi, C. Wu, D. Tang, and H. Zhang, Recent progress of study on optical solitons in fiber lasers, Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 021313 (2019).
  23. L. W. Clark, L. Feng, and C. Chin, Universal space-time scaling symmetry in the dynamics of bosons across a quantum phase transition, Science 354, 606 (2016).
  24. A. Keesling, A. Omran, H. Levine, H. Bernien, H. Pichler, S. Choi, R. Samajdar, S. Schwartz, P. Silvi, S. Sachdev et al., Quantum Kibble–Zurek mechanism and critical dynamics on a programmable Rydberg simulator, Nature (London) 568, 207 (2019).
  25. S. Burger, K. Bongs, S. Dettmer, W. Ertmer, K. Sengstock, A. Sanpera, G. V. Shlyapnikov, and M. Lewenstein, Dark solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5198 (1999).
  26. M. W. Ray, E. Ruokokoski, S. Kandel, M. Möttönen, and D. S. Hall, Observation of Dirac monopoles in a synthetic magnetic field, Nature (London) 505, 657 (2014).
  27. D. S. Hall, M. W. Ray, K. Tiurev, E. Ruokokoski, A. H. Gheorghe, and M. Möttönen, Tying quantum knots, Nat. Phys. 12, 478 (2016).
  28. E. Kengne, W.-M. Liu, and B. A. Malomed, Spatiotemporal engineering of matter-wave solitons in Bose–Einstein condensates, Phys. Rep. 899, 1 (2021).
  29. Y. Buggy, L. G. Phillips, and P. Öhberg, On the hydrodynamics of nonlinear gauge-coupled quantum fluids, Eur. Phys. J. D 74, 92 (2020).
  30. S. Coleman, Fate of the false vacuum: Semiclassical theory, Phys. Rev. D 15, 2929 (1977).
  31. C. J. Pethick and H. Smith, Bose–Einstein Condensation in Dilute Gases (Cambridge University, Cambridge, 2008).
  32. F. Schäfer, T. Fukuhara, S. Sugawa, Y. Takasu, and Y. Takahashi, Tools for quantum simulation with ultracold atoms in optical lattices, Nat. Rev. Phys. 2, 411 (2020).
  33. P. Kramer and M. Saraceno, Geometry of the Time-Dependent Variational Principle in Quantum Mechanics (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1981).
  34. L. E. Ballentine, Quantum Mechanics: A Modern Development (World Scientific, Singapore, 2014), Chap. 14.
  35. A. L. Fetter and A. A. Svidzinsky, Vortices in a trapped dilute Bose-Einstein condensate, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 13, R135 (2001).
  36. Z. F. Ezawa, Quantum Hall Effects: Field Theoretical Approach and Related Topics (World Scientific, Singapore, 2008), Chap. 8.
  37. G. Valentí-Rojas, A. J. Baker, A. Celi, and P. Öhberg, Topological gauge fields and the composite particle duality, Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 023128 (2023).
  38. A. Görlitz, J. M. Vogels, A. E. Leanhardt, C. Raman, T. L. Gustavson, J. R. Abo-Shaeer, A. P. Chikkatur, S. Gupta, S. Inouye, T. Rosenband et al., Realization of Bose-Einstein condensates in lower dimensions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 130402 (2001).
  39. M. Olshanii, Atomic scattering in the presence of an external confinement and a gas of impenetrable bosons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 938 (1998).
  40. S. Abel and M. Spannowsky, Quantum-field-theoretic simulation platform for observing the fate of the false vacuum, PRX Quantum 2, 010349 (2021).
  41. B. Song, S. Dutta, S. Bhave, J.-C. Yu, E. Carter, N. Cooper, and U. Schneider, Realizing discontinuous quantum phase transitions in a strongly correlated driven optical lattice, Nat. Phys. 18, 259 (2022).
  42. C. Chin, R. Grimm, P. Julienne, and E. Tiesinga, Feshbach resonances in ultracold gases, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 1225 (2010).
  43. Y. Buggy and P. Öhberg, Gauge transformations and Galilean covariance in nonlinear gauge-coupled quantum fluids, Phys. Rev. A 102, 033342 (2020).
  44. Y.-J. Lin, R. L. Compton, K. Jiménez-García, J. V. Porto, and I. B. Spielman, Synthetic magnetic fields for ultracold neutral atoms, Nature (London) 462, 628 (2009).
  45. S. Butera, M. Valiente, and P. Öhberg, Quantized vortices in interacting gauge theories, J. Phys. B: At., Mol. Opt. Phys. 49, 015304 (2016).
  46. S. Butera, M. Valiente, and P. Öhberg, Vortex dynamics in superfluids governed by an interacting gauge theory, New J. Phys. 18, 085001 (2016).
  47. B. A. Malomed, Vortex solitons: Old results and new perspectives, Physica D 399, 108 (2019).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L022058– Published 9 June, 2025
  • Received 16 January 2023
  • Accepted 5 May 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

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. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation