Pair correlated atoms with a twist

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the quantum state of atoms resulting from diatomic molecule dissociation in a vortex state, revealing symmetric, correlated states with specific angular momentum properties through both simple and full quantum analyses.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed quantum analysis of dissociated molecular vortex states, highlighting symmetry preservation and correlation features in the resulting atomic states.

Findings

Quantum correlated states with rotational symmetry are formed.

Two-mode and quantum field analyses agree for weak depletion.

Atoms exhibit angular momentum components summing to unity.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the quantum state resulting from the dissociation of diatomic molecules prepared in a condensate vortex state. The many-body state preserves the rotational symmetry of the system in quantum correlated states by having two equally populated components with angular momentum adding to unity. A simple two-mode analysis and a full quantum field analysis is presented for the case of non-interacting atoms and weak depletion of the molecular condensate.