Collective excitations in two-dimensional harmonically trapped quantum droplets

Abstract

The collective excitation modes in quantum droplets trapped in a two-dimensional harmonic potential in the context of symmetric weakly interacting binary bosonic mixtures are studied. By utilizing the linearization technique, the time-dependent extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation, and a sum-rule approach with a variational approximation, the ground state properties and collective excitations of such a two-dimensional quantum system are investigated for various system parameters. We present comprehensive analysis and calculations on the effect of the confinement strength and anisotropy of the trapping potential, the number of atoms in the droplet, and the collective excitation modes. The radius of the droplet, as well as the chemical potential, is non-monotonically related to the number of atoms in the droplet, and the confinement tends to shift the minimum values towards the ideal gas limit. The excitation frequency peaks, which are prominent in a self-bounded droplet, become less pronounced and smoother when subjected to a strong trapping potential. The sum-rule approach fails to reproduce the breathing mode frequency for a moderate number of atoms in a weak trapping potential, however, works perfectly well in a strong confinement. It was found that the anisotropy in the trap eliminates the degeneracy between the quadrupole and scissors modes that occurs in an isotropic trap, causing the frequencies of these two modes to immediately diverge from each other for any degree of anisotropy. These findings provide valuable insights into the unique characteristics and behavior of quantum droplets, offering potential implications for future research and applications in the dynamic behaviors of intriguing quantum droplets.