Gauge-spin-space rotation invariant vortices in spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We revisit ground states of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates with a Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and find that votices show up as a direct consequence of spontaneous symmetry breaking into a combined gauge, spin, and space rotation symmetry, which determines the vortex-core spin state at the rotating center. For the continuous combined symmetry, the total spin rotation about the rotating axis is restricted to $2\pi$, whereas for the discrete combined symmetry, we further need 2F quantum numbers to characterize the total spin rotation for the spin-$F$ system. For lattice phases we find that in the ground state the topological charge for each unit cell vanishes. However, we find two types of highly symmetric lattices with a nontrivial topological charge in the spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ system based on the symmetry classification, and show that they are skyrmion crystals.

10+ pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (13)

• Bose-Einstein condensation of chromium
• Non-Abelian gauge potentials for ultra-cold atoms with degenerate dark states
• Spontaneously modulated spin textures in a dipolar spinor Bose-Einstein condensate
• Generalized Rashba spin-orbit coupling for cold atoms
• Classifying Novel Phases of Spinor Atoms
• Spontaneous spin textures in dipolar spinor condensates
• Atomic spin-orbit coupling synthesized with magnetic-field-gradient pulses
• Discrete symmetries and 1/3-quantum vortices in condensates of F=2 cold atoms
• Emergent patterns in a spin-orbit coupled spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate
• Spontaneous Circulation in Ground-State Spinor Dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Symmetry classification of spin-orbit coupled spinor Bose-Einstein condensates
• Stationary States of Trapped Spin-Orbit-Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Symmetry and inert states of spin Bose Condensates

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Phase separation in a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate
• Chiral Supersolid in Spin-Orbit-Coupled Bose Gases with Soft-Core Long-Range Interactions
• Vortex states and spin textures of rotating spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in a toroidal trap
• Spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein-condensed atoms confined in annular potentials
• Topological excitations in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates with Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling in a two-dimensional optical lattice
• Spin-orbit coupled spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate flow past an obstacle in the presence of a Zeeman field
• Topological defects of spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates in a rotating anharmonic trap
• Magnetic and nematic phases in a Weyl type spin-orbit-coupled spin-1 Bose gas
• Topological defects in rotating spin-orbit-coupled dipolar spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates