Superstripes and quasicrystals in bosonic systems with hard-soft corona interactions

TL;DR

This study explores how quantum fluctuations influence pattern formation in bosonic systems with hard-soft corona interactions, revealing a variety of crystalline and quasicrystalline phases through advanced simulations.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed phase diagram showing quantum-induced supersolid, crystalline, and quasicrystalline phases in such bosonic systems.

Findings

Identification of supersolid stripe phases

Observation of quasicrystalline patterns with 12-fold symmetry

Quantitative differences between quantum and classical phases

Abstract

The search for spontaneous pattern formation in equilibrium phases with genuine quantum properties is a leading direction of current research. In this work we investigate the effect of quantum fluctuations - zero point motion and exchange interactions - on the phases of an ensemble of bosonic particles with isotropic hard-soft corona interactions. We perform extensive path-integral Monte Carlo simulations to determine their ground state properties. A rich phase diagram, parametrized by the density of particles and the interaction strength of the soft-corona potential, reveals supersolid stripes, kagome and triangular crystals in the low-density regime. In the high-density limit we observe patterns with 12-fold rotational symmetry compatible with periodic approximants of quasicrystalline phases. We characterize these quantum phases by computing the superfluid density and the bond-orientational order parameter. Finally, we highlight the qualitative and quantitative differences of our findings with the classical equilibrium phases for the same parameter regimes.