Metastable Patterns in one- and two-component dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This study explores metastable states in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing stable symmetry patterns, novel ring-lattice states, and the ability to stabilize these states through inter-species interaction tuning.

Contribution

It uncovers a variety of metastable symmetry states, including a unique ring-lattice pattern, and demonstrates stabilization methods via inter-species interactions in dipolar condensates.

Findings

Metastable states exhibit robust symmetries despite not being ground states.

Striped phases can host metastable states more favorable than certain lattice configurations.

Tuning inter-species interactions broadens the stability domain of these states.

Abstract

In this paper we study metastable states in single- and two-component dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates. We show that this system supports a rich spectrum of symmetries that are remarkably stable despite not being ground states. In a parameter region where striped phases are ground states, we find such metastable states that are energetically favourable compared to triangular and honeycomb lattices. Among these metastable states we report a peculiar ring-lattice state, which is led by the competition between triangular and honeycomb symmetries and rarely seen in other systems. In the case of dipolar mixtures we show that via tuning the miscibility these states can be stabilized in a broader domain by utilising inter-species interactions.