Quantum liquid droplets in a mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates

Quantum droplets are small clusters of atoms self-bound by the balance of attractive and repulsive forces. Here we report on the observation of a novel type of droplets, solely stabilized by contact interactions in a mixture of two Bose-Einstein condensates. We demonstrate that they are several orde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2017-08
Main Authors: Cabrera, C R, Tanzi, L, Sanz, J, Naylor, B, Thomas, P, Cheiney, P, Tarruell, L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bose-Einstein condensates
Collapse
Dilution
Droplets
Helium
Liquid helium
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Quantum droplets are small clusters of atoms self-bound by the balance of attractive and repulsive forces. Here we report on the observation of a novel type of droplets, solely stabilized by contact interactions in a mixture of two Bose-Einstein condensates. We demonstrate that they are several orders of magnitude more dilute than liquid helium by directly measuring their size and density via in situ imaging. Moreover, by comparison to a single-component condensate, we show that quantum many-body effects stabilize them against collapse. We observe that droplets require a minimum atom number to be stable. Below, quantum pressure drives a liquid-to-gas transition that we map out as a function of interaction strength. These ultra-dilute isotropic liquids remain weakly interacting and constitute an ideal platform to benchmark quantum many-body theories.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1708.07806