Spin textures in condensates with large dipole moments

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates the ground states of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing diverse spin textures and phase diagrams influenced by dipolar interactions and trap geometries, with implications for large dipole moment gases.

Contribution

It introduces a semiclassical numerical approach to model spin textures in dipolar condensates, highlighting their independence from quantum spin number and interaction origin.

Findings

Identification of ground state phase diagram in pancake-shaped traps

Discovery of a novel helical spin texture in elongated traps

Spin textures resemble those in ferromagnetic spinor condensates

Abstract

We have solved numerically the ground states of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of dipolar interparticle forces using a semiclassical approach. Our motivation is to model, in particular, the spontaneous spin textures emerging in quantum gases with large dipole moments, such as 52Cr or Dy condensates, or ultracold gases consisting of polar molecules. For a pancake-shaped harmonic (optical) potential, we present the ground state phase diagram spanned by the strength of the nonlinear coupling and dipolar interactions. In an elongated harmonic potential, we observe a novel helical spin texture. The textures calculated according to the semiclassical model in the absence of external polarizing fields are predominantly analogous to previously reported results for a ferromagnetic F = 1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, suggesting that the spin textures arising from the dipolar forces are largely independent of the value of the quantum number F or the origin of the dipolar interactions.