Cooperative stabilization of persistent currents in superfluid ring networks

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how cooperative effects in superfluid ring networks stabilize persistent currents, using a Kuramoto-like oscillator model to analytically predict stability and robustness, aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified oscillator model to analytically analyze the stability of persistent currents in superfluid rings, highlighting the role of topology and cooperative effects.

Findings

Analytical stability diagram matches experimental results

Persistent currents are stabilized by cooperative effects in ring topology

Robustness to noise and imperfections is quantitatively characterized

Abstract

Cooperative effects in oscillator networks are often associated with enhanced stability of phase-locked solutions, which increases with system size. We show that the stabilization of persistent currents in annular atomic superfluids with periodic barriers is a concrete manifestation of this phenomenon. Under the simplifying assumption of continuity of atomic flow across identical barriers, the system reduces to a ring of locally coupled Kuramoto-like oscillators. We analytically derive the stability diagram of phase-locked configurations and quantify their robustness to noise and small random initial imperfections, finding excellent agreement with experimental observations. These results are inherent to the ring topology and independent of the specific physical platform.