Ionic polaron in a Bose-Einstein condensate

authored by
Grigory E. Astrakharchik, Luis A.Peña Ardila, Richard Schmidt, Krzysztof Jachymski, Antonio Negretti
Abstract

The presence of strong interactions in a many-body quantum system can lead to a variety of exotic effects. Here we show that even in a comparatively simple setup consisting of a charged impurity in a weakly interacting bosonic medium the competition of length scales gives rise to a highly correlated mesoscopic state. Using quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we unravel its vastly different polaronic properties compared to neutral quantum impurities. Moreover, we identify a transition between the regime amenable to conventional perturbative treatment in the limit of weak atom-ion interactions and a many-body bound state with vanishing quasi-particle residue composed of hundreds of atoms. In order to analyze the structure of the corresponding states, we examine the atom-ion and atom-atom correlation functions which both show nontrivial properties. Our findings are directly relevant to experiments using hybrid atom-ion setups that have recently attained the ultracold regime.

Organisation(s)
Institute of Theoretical Physics
QuantumFrontiers
External Organisation(s)
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ)
Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)
Forschungszentrum Jülich
University of Warsaw
Universität Hamburg
Type
Article
Journal
Communications Physics
Volume
4
Publication date
11.05.2021
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Physics and Astronomy
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00597-1 (Access: Open)