2019/10/31 by Shengjie Jin, Wenjun Zhang, Xinxin Guo +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Antiferromagnetism #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Hexagonal lattice #Ising model #Liquid crystal #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Potts model #Superconductivity #Superfluidity #Translational symmetry #cond-mat.quant-gas #cond-mat.str-el #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.035301
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 035301 (2021) · 17 pages, 12 figures, published version
openalex publication_date 2021/01/21 · arxiv created 2021/01/26 · arxiv updated 2021/01/27 · openalex created_date 2021/02/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
As in between liquid and crystal phases lies a nematic liquid crystal, which breaks rotation with preservation of translation symmetry, there is a nematic superfluid phase bridging a superfluid and a supersolid. The nematic order also emerges in interacting electrons and has been found to largely intertwine with multiorbital correlation in high-temperature superconductivity, where Ising nematicity arises from a four-fold rotation symmetry C4 broken down to C2. Here, we report an observation of a three-state (Z3) quantum nematic order, dubbed "Potts-nematicity", in a system of cold atoms loaded in an excited band of a hexagonal optical lattice described by an sp2-orbital hybridized model. This Potts-nematic quantum state spontaneously breaks a three-fold rotation symmetry of the lattice, qualitatively distinct from the Ising nematicity. Our field theory analysis shows that the Potts-nematic order is stabilized by intricate renormalization effects enabled by strong interorbital mixing present in the hexagonal lattice. This discovery paves a way to investigate quantum vestigial orders in multiorbital atomic superfluids.