Creating and melting a supersolid by heating a quantum dipolar system

Abstract

Recent experiments have shown that rising the temperature of a dipolar gas under certain conditions leads to a transition to a supersolid state. Here, we employ the path integral Monte Carlo method, which exactly accounts for both thermal and correlation effects, to study that phenomenology in a system of $^{162}$Dy atoms in the canonical ensemble. Our microscopic description allows to quantitatively characterize the emergence of spatial order and superfluidity, the two ingredients that define a supersolid state. Our calculations prove that temperature on its own can promote the formation of a supersolid in a dipolar system. Furthermore, we bridge this exotic phenomenology with the more usual melting of the supersolid at a higher temperature. Our results offer insight into the interplay between thermal excitations, the dipole-dipole interaction, quantum statistics and supersolidity.