Two-dimensional bosonic droplets in a harmonic trap

TL;DR

This paper studies the transition of two-dimensional bosonic droplets in a harmonic trap from weak to strong attractive interactions, revealing a universal critical point and analyzing the effects of finite-range interactions.

Contribution

It provides a variational analysis of the phase transition in 2D bosonic droplets and explores the impact of finite-range interactions on this transition.

Findings

Transition occurs abruptly at a universal critical interaction strength.

Finite-range interactions smooth out the transition point.

Static response analysis links the transition to classical phase transition behavior.

Abstract

We investigate a system of bosons in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. In the limit of strong attractive interactions, the bosons make a droplet insensitive to external confinement. For weak interactions, in contrast, the ground state is given by the harmonic trap. In this work, we conduct a variational study of the transition between these two limits. We find that this transition occurs abruptly at the critical interaction strength whose value is universal if scaled appropriately with the number of particles. To connect the abrupt change in the properties of the system to the classical description of phase transitions, we analyze the static response of the Bose gas related to the isothermal compressibility. Finally, we perform numerically exact calculations for a few particles to demonstrate the effects of finite range interactions on this transition. We conclude that finite range effects wash out the point of transition.