Imprinting a topological interface using Zeeman shifts in an atomic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

We propose to use spatial control of the Zeeman energy shifts in an ultracold atomic gas to engineer an interface between topologically distinct regions. This provides an experimentally accessible means for studying the interface physics of topological defects and textures. Using the spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate as an example, we find spinor wave functions that represent defects and textures continuously connecting across the interface between polar and ferromagnetic regions induced by spatially varying Zeeman shifts. By numerical energy minimization we characterize the defect core structures and determine the energetic stability. The techniques proposed could potentially be used in the laboratory to emulate complex interface physics arising, e.g., in cosmological and condensed-matter contexts in both uniform and lattice systems.

Published version, 29 pages, 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Core Structure and Non-Abelian Reconnection of Defects in a Biaxial Nematic Spin-2 Bose-Einstein Condensate
• Stability and internal structure of vortices in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with conserved magnetization
• Nematic ordering dynamics of an anti-ferromagnetic spin-1 condensate
• The nonlinear Dirac equation in Bose-Einstein condensates: Superfluid fluctuations and emergent theories from relativistic linear stability equations
• Nematic-orbit coupling and nematic density waves in spin-1 condensates
• Dynamics of a Nonequilibrium Discontinuous Quantum Phase Transition in a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate
• Topological interfaces crossed by defects and textures of continuous and discrete point group symmetries in spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensates
• Stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii theory for a spin-1 Bose gas: Application to superfluidity in two dimensions