• Letter
  • Open Access

Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions in an easy-plane ferromagnetic superfluid

Andrew P. C. Underwood, Andrew J. Groszek, Xiaoquan Yu, P. B. Blakie, and L. A. Williamson
Phys. Rev. Research 5, L012045 – Published 23 March 2023

Abstract

A two-dimensional spin-1 Bose gas exhibits two Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transitions in the easy-plane ferromagnetic phase. The higher-temperature transition is associated with superfluidity of the mass current determined predominantly by a single spin component. The lower-temperature transition is associated with superfluidity of the axial spin current, quasi-long-range order of the transverse spin density, and binding of polar-core spin vortices (PCVs). Above the spin BKT temperature, the component circulations that make up each PCV spatially separate, suggesting possible deconfinement analogous to quark deconfinement in high-energy physics. Intercomponent interactions give rise to superfluid drag between the spin components, which we calculate analytically at zero temperature. We present the mass and spin superfluid phase diagram as a function of quadratic Zeeman energy q. At q=0 the system is in an isotropic spin phase with SO(3) symmetry. Here the fluid response exhibits a system size dependence, suggesting the absence of a BKT transition. Despite this, for finite systems the decay of spin correlations changes from exponential to algebraic as the temperature is decreased.

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  • Received 29 July 2022
  • Accepted 1 March 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L012045

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Andrew P. C. Underwood1, Andrew J. Groszek2,3, Xiaoquan Yu4,1, P. B. Blakie1, and L. A. Williamson2

  • 1Department of Physics, Centre for Quantum Science, and Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
  • 2ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
  • 3ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
  • 4Graduate School of China Academy of Engineering Physics, Beijing 100193, China

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Vol. 5, Iss. 1 — March - May 2023

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