English

Observation of quantum droplets in a strongly dipolar Bose gas

Quantum Gases 2016-05-25 v2 Atomic Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

Quantum fluctuations are the origin of genuine quantum many-body effects, and can be neglected in classical mean-field phenomena. Here we report on the observation of stable quantum droplets containing \sim 800 atoms which are expected to collapse at the mean-field level due to the essentially attractive interaction. By systematic measurements on individual droplets we demonstrate quantitatively that quantum fluctuations stabilize them against the mean-field collapse. We observe in addition interference of several droplets indicating that this stable many-body state is phase coherent.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1601.03318,
  title  = {Observation of quantum droplets in a strongly dipolar Bose gas},
  author = {Igor Ferrier-Barbut and Holger Kadau and Matthias Schmitt and Matthias Wenzel and Tilman Pfau},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.03318},
  year   = {2016}
}