Crystallisation of a dilute atomic dipolar condensate

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical model explaining the crystallisation of a dilute dysprosium atomic condensate into droplet lattices, highlighting the role of three-body interactions and providing insights into the phase's properties.

Contribution

It introduces a conservative three-body interaction mechanism that stabilizes droplet formation, offering a new understanding of the crystallisation process in dipolar condensates.

Findings

Theory reproduces experimental droplet lattice formation

Three-body interactions stabilize droplets against collapse

Suggests a pathway to realize supersolid phase

Abstract

We present a theory that explains the experimentally observed crystallisation of a dilute dysprosium condensate into a lattice of droplets. The key ingredient of our theory is a conservative three-body interaction which stabilises the droplets against collapse to high density spikes. Our theory reproduces the experimental observations, and provides insight into the manybody properties of this new phase of matter. Notably, we show that it is unlikely that a supersolid was obtained in experiments, however our results suggest a strategy to realize this phase.