Thomas Bland

By rapidly rotating the dipole moment in an ultracold Bose gas it is possible to tune the dipole-dipole interaction. Rotating dipoles around the origin of the x-y plane, for example, gives a time averaged interaction that is equivalent to anti-dipoles oriented along the z axis! This means that the effective interaction is opposite: head-to-tail anti-dipoles repel, and side-by-side anti-dipoles attract! In an infinite tube of anti-dipoles, this means that the possible supersolid states have cylindrical symmetry around the x-y axis, which we utilize to facilitate analytic predictions, and faster numerical simulations, of two-component antidipolar supersolids!

See the pre-print here: arXiv:2301.08007

Here in Innsbruck, and in Stuttgart and Pisa, clouds of ultracold dipolar atoms have recently been observed in the long-sought after supersolid state, in which there exists global phase coherence and crystalline density structure in the superfluid. Two-component dipolar gases are also now experimentally producible, with our erbium and dysprosium mixtures, however the fate of the supersolid state remains largely unknown.
Together with researchers from Hanover, we predict the existence of a binary supersolid state in which the two components form a series of alternating domains, producing an immiscible double supersolid. Remarkably, we find that a dipolar component can even induce supersolidity in a nondipolar component. In stark contrast to single-component supersolids, the number of crystal sites is not strictly limited by the condensate populations, and the density is hence substantially lower. Our results are applicable to a wide range of dipole moment combinations, marking an important step towards long-lived bulk-supersolidity.
See the pre-print here: arXiv:2203.11119, and the now published paper here: PhysRevA.106.053322