Formation and fragmentation of quantum droplets in a quasi-one dimensional dipolar Bose gas

TL;DR

This paper theoretically explores how quantum droplets form and fragment in a one-dimensional dipolar Bose gas, revealing the conditions for droplet formation, transition signatures, and dynamic behaviors upon trap release.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical analysis of droplet formation, transition, and fragmentation in a quasi-one-dimensional dipolar Bose gas, including dynamic simulations with a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation.

Findings

Droplets form when dipolar attraction dominates contact interactions.

A gas-liquid transition is indicated by a steep breathing mode increase.

Droplet behavior varies with atom number and scattering length, showing evaporation, single or multiple droplets.

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the droplets formation in a tightly trapped one-dimensional dipolar gas of bosonic atoms. When the strength of the dipolar interaction becomes sufficiently attractive compared to the contact one, we show how a solitonic-like density profile evolves into a liquid-like droplet on increasing the number of particles in the trap. The incipient gas-liquid transition is also signalled by a steep increase of the breathing mode and a change in sign of the chemical potential. Upon a sudden release of the trap, varying the number of trapped atoms and the scattering length, the numerical solution of a time-dependent generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation shows either an evaporation of the cloud, the formation of a single self-bound droplet or a fragmentation in multiple droplets.These results can be probed with lanthanides atoms and help in characterizing the effect of the dipolar interaction in a quasi-one-dimensional geometry.