Solids and supersolids of three-body interacting polar molecules in an optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phases of polar molecules in an optical lattice with dominant three-body interactions, revealing solid and supersolid phases through computational methods, and suggests experimental realization of lattice supersolids.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed phase diagram for hardcore bosons with three-body interactions, highlighting the potential for observing supersolid phases in experiments.

Findings

Identification of solid and supersolid phases in the phase diagram

Use of quantum Monte Carlo, exact diagonalization, and semiclassical methods

Relevance for experimental realization of lattice supersolids

Abstract

We study the physics of cold polar molecules loaded into an optical lattice in the regime of strong three-body interactions, as put forward recently by B\"uchler [Nature Phys. 3, 726 (2007)]. To this end quantum Monte Carlo simulations, exact diagonalization and a semiclassical approach are used to explore hardcore bosons on the two-dimensional square lattice which interact solely by long ranged three-body terms. The resulting phase diagram shows a sequence of solid and supersolid phases. Our findings are directly relevant for future experimental implementations and open a new route towards the discovery of a lattice supersolid phase in experiment.