2019/12/23 by P. Ilzhöfer, Ilzhöfer, Philipp, Maximilian Sohmen +17 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1912.10892
A supersolid is a fascinating phase of matter, combining the global phase\ncoherence of a superfluid with hallmarks of solids, e.g. a spontaneous breaking\nof the translational symmetry. Recently, states with such counter-intuitive\nproperties have been realized in experiments using ultracold quantum gases with\nstrong dipolar interactions. Here, we investigate the response of a supersolid\nstate to phase excitations which shatter the global phase coherence. After the\ncreation of those excitations, we observe a rapid re-establishment of a global\nphase coherence, suggesting the presence of a superfluid flow across the whole\nsample and an efficient dissipation mechanism. We are able to identify a\nwell-defined region where rephasing occurs, indicating the phase boundary\nbetween the solid-like and the supersolid phase. Our observations call for the\ndevelopment of theoretical descriptions able to capture the non-equilibrium\ndynamics in the recently discovered supersolid states of quantum matter.\n