The Role of Quantum Fluctuations in the Hexatic Phase of Cold Polar Molecules

Abstract

Two dimensional crystals melt via an intermediate \textit{hexatic} phase which is characterized by an anomalous scaling of spatial and orientational correlation functions and the absence of an attraction between dislocations. We propose a protocol to study the role of quantum fluctuations on the nature of this phase with a system of strongly correlated polar molecules in a parameter regime where thermal and quantum fluctuations are of the same order of magnitude. The dislocations can be located in experiment from local energy differences which induce internal stark shifts in dislocation molecules. We present a criterium to identify the hexatic phase from the statistics of the end points of topological defect strings and find a hexatic phase, which is dominated by quantum fluctuations, between crystal and superfluid phase.

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• Long-lived complexes and signatures of chaos in ultracold K2+Rb collisions
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• Classification of nematic order in 2+1D: Dislocation melting and $O(2)/Z_N$ lattice gauge theory
• Liquid crystal phases of two-dimensional dipolar gases and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless melting
• Properties of the density-wave phase of a two-dimensional dipolar Fermi gas
• Tuneable defect interactions and supersolidity in dipolar quantum gases on a lattice potential
• Quantum melting of two-component Rydberg crystals
• Continuum theory of electrostatic-elastic coupling interactions in colloidal crystals
• Entropy and Kinetics of Point-Defects in Two-Dimensional Dipolar Crystals