Condensate-mediated dimerization of impurities in atomic BECs

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how impurities in an atomic BEC can form localized dimer states mediated by the condensate, revealing mechanisms for structural transitions and dynamic soliton trains.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of condensate-mediated impurity dimerization in optical lattices and analyzes the effects of the condensate on impurity interactions and structures.

Findings

Impurities form localized dimer states in a BEC environment.

The condensate mediates attractive interactions and modifies impurity lattice potentials.

Structural transitions occur at strong impurity-condensate coupling, leading to dimer rearrangements.

Abstract

We show that strongly correlated impurities confined in an optical lattice can form localized, molecule-like dimer states in the presence of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). By systematically studying the effect of the lattice potential on this mixture, we reveal the two roles of the condensate in assisting the formation of dimerized impurities: mediating the attractive interaction among impurities and rescaling the lattice potential of impurities. At strong coupling between the impurities and the condensate, the two mechanisms cooperate to induce a structural transition, resulting in the rearrangement of dimers. We also show that the nonequilibrium dynamics of these states can be interpreted as a dimerized soliton train.