Vortex-Peierls States in Optical Lattices

Abstract

We show that vortices, induced in cold atom superfluids in optical lattices, may order in a novel vortex-Peierls ground state. In such a state vortices do not form a simple lattice but arrange themselves in clusters, within which the vortices are partially delocalized, tunneling between classically degenerate configurations. We demonstrate that this exotic quantum many-body state is selected by an order-from-disorder mechanism for a special combination of the vortex filling and lattice geometry that has a macroscopic number of classically degenerate ground states.

4 pages, 4 figures. Published version

References in corpus (2)

• Pinning of vortices in a Bose-Einstein condensate by an optical lattice
• Vortex configurations of bosons in an optical lattice

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