arXiv subjects

Jordi Boronat

Publications and source records attributed to Jordi Boronat.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum antidipolar systems in two-dimensional geometries

Particles with magnetic moment can be polarized, and rapidly rotated, employing a magnetic field such that the dipolar interaction among them changes sign, becoming antidipolar and thus isotropically attractive in a plane. Polar molecules can also be manipulated using microwave dressing fields to invert the sign of the dipole-dipole interaction. In this work, we study a two-dimensional system of antidipolar particles by calculating its equation of state and structural properties. The system behaves as a liquid even for scattering lengths significantly greater than the dipolar length. For large enough densities, the system transitions to a solid with one particle per lattice site via a first-order phase transition at a significantly smaller density than its dipolar counterpart. Moreover, motivated by the recent realization of a strongly axially trapped, bilayer geometry [Science 384, 546-551 (2024)], we study the properties of the bilayer liquid phase as the inter-layer distance is tuned, and provide the range of parameters where one layer can influence the properties of the other.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2026

Ultradilute quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Bose liquid mixtures

We study ultradilute $^{39}$K Bose-Bose bulk mixtures and droplets in an external harmonic potential that confines them in one spatial direction towards the two-dimensional (2D) limit. Equations of state for several confinements are obtained with quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) at $T=0$, using interaction potentials that include information on the $s$-wave scattering length $a$ and the effective range $r_{\rm eff}$. Performing the calculations using two different interaction potential models we have determined the range of confinements for which equations of state are universal in terms of $a$ and $r_{\rm eff}$. Based on the QMC equation of state, we develop a 2D QMC density functional for each confinement strength and use it together with the local density approximation to determine properties of the self-bound drops. For moderate squeezing, energies and droplet profiles obtained using the 2D QMC functional agree well with those obtained using 3D functionals, while offering a substantial reduction in computational cost, and a consistent approach in crossover to 2D. Noticeably, our results approach 2D mean-field (MF) + Lee-Huang-Yang (LHY) predictions only for the most strongly confined systems for which universality in terms of $a$ and $r_{\rm eff}$ is observed. This implies a very narrow range of confinements for which 2D LHY functionals are applicable, which has important consequences for the study of vortices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2026

Self-Bound Droplets of Ultracold Dipolar Molecules under Tunable Double Microwave Shielding

We use the Ground-State Path Integral Monte Carlo method to study a Bose-Einstein condensate of strongly interacting NaCs polar molecules under the action of a fully anisotropic double microwave shielding potential characterized by a linear and an elliptical polarization field. In particular, we analyze the ground state of the system and its structure as a function of the ellipticity angle $ξ$. While for the circularly polarized case ($ξ=0$) a gas phase is realized, one or more self-bound droplets are observed for small $|ξ|$'s above a threshold value near $3^\circ$. With increasing $ξ$, the observed droplets rapidly become tightly bound and are estimated to form a superfluid array. Our results compare favorably to the experimental observations in [Zhang et al., Nature \textbf{651}, 601 (2026)] for positive $ξ$, while moderate differences show up for $ξ<0$ where our simulations conform to the expected symmetries of the intermolecular potential.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2026

Mass-imbalanced SU(N) Fermi gases

We report a fully analytical description of zero-temperature itinerant ferromagnetism in repulsive SU(N) Fermi gases with arbitrary mass imbalance among components. Using perturbation theory in the gas parameter x = kFa0, with kF the Fermi momentum and a0 the s-wave scattering length, we derive the second-order energy for arbitrary spin polarization and arbitrary mass ratio. Our main result is a closed analytic expression for the beyond-mean-field correction in mixtures with unequal masses. This analytical result extends the theory of dilute Fermi gases beyond the mass-balanced case and provides a compact equation of state for multicomponent mixtures. We show that mass imbalance breaks the paramagnetic symmetry already in the non-interacting limit, favors the occu pation of heavier components, and lowers the interaction strength required to reach a fully polarized state. For S = 1/2, the system evolves continuously from a mass-induced partially polarized state to full ferromagnetism. For larger spins, distinct mass distributions generate qualitatively differ ent polarization paths, including smooth and discontinuous sequences. Our results identify mass imbalance as a powerful control tool for magnetic ordering in ultracold Fermi mixtures.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2026

Confinement and finite-range effects in a quasi-two-dimensional gas of fermionic dimers

We investigate the ground-state properties of ultracold two-component Fermi gases in the presence of a transverse harmonic potential, focusing on the strongly interacting regime in which pairs of fermions form tightly bound molecules. Using the fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo method, we calculate the equation of state and density profiles for the full fermionic system, which allows us to address the importance of finite-range corrections arising from the internal fermionic structure of the dimers. We interpret the results in terms of a molecular Bose gas in quasi-two-dimensional confinement and compare them with theoretical predictions for a weakly interacting two-dimensional Bose gas, identifying the range of validity of mean-field and beyond-mean-field descriptions. We also develop an analytical theory for the transverse density profile, capturing its broadening with increasing interaction strength. This work provides a benchmark for an effective bosonic description of strongly bound fermionic dimers and offers new insights into confinement-induced dimensional effects.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Observation of a supersolid stripe state in two-dimensional dipolar gases

Fluctuations typically destroy long-range order in two-dimensional (2D) systems, posing a fundamental challenge to the existence of exotic states like supersolids, which paradoxically combine solid-like structure with frictionless superfluid flow. While long-predicted, the definitive observation of a 2D supersolid has remained an outstanding experimental goal. Here, we report the observation of a supersolid stripe phase in a strongly dipolar quantum gas of erbium atoms confined to 2D. We directly image the periodic density modulation, confirming its global phase coherence through matter-wave interference and demonstrating its phase rigidity relevant to the low-energy Goldstone mode, consistent with numerical calculations. Through collective excitation measurements, we demonstrate the hydrodynamic behavior of the supersolid. This work highlights a novel mechanism for supersolid formation in low dimensions, and opens the door for future research on the intricate interplay between temperature, supersolidity, and dimensionality.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Empty and filled vortices in squeezed 39K Bose-Bose liquid drops

Using density functional theory, we have theoretically studied the formation and the stability of vortices in quantum liquid droplets composed of a mixture of hyperfine states of potassium. Following the experimental setup that produced quantum droplets for the first time, we work with squeezed drops that are compressed in one direction. By squeezing the drops even more, towards a quasi-two dimensional geometry, we study the minimum atom number able to show a stable vortex and obtain that this number is significantly smaller than previous predictions for spherical droplets. The reduction of the critical atom number for forming a stable vortex could make their experimental observation in these droplets, which is still lacking, more feasible. Contrary to results obtained in heteronuclear mixtures, where the energetically preferred vortices are partially filled with the species not participating in the rotation, our results show a relevant stability island of fully empty vortices. Increasing the number of particles in the drop and the speed of rotation, we estimate the transition line between empty and filled vortices.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Realization of repulsive polarons in the strongly correlated regime

Mobile impurities interacting with a quantum medium form quasiparticles known as polarons, a central concept in many-body physics. While the quantum impurity problem has been extensively studied with ultracold atomic gases, repulsive polarons in the strongly correlated regime have remained elusive. Typically, the impurity atoms bind into molecules or rapidly decay into deeper lying states before they can acquire an appreciable dressing cloud. Here, we report on the realization of polarons in a strongly repulsive quasi-two-dimensional quantum gas. Using a superfluid of $^6$Li dimers, we introduce impurities by promoting a small fraction of the dimers into higher levels of the transverse confining potential. These novel synthetic-spin polarons give access to the strongly repulsive regime where common decay channels are suppressed. We extract key polaron properties - the energy, quasiparticle residue, and effective mass - using trap modulation and Bragg spectroscopy. Our measurements are well captured by a microscopic T-matrix approach and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, revealing deviations from mean-field predictions. In particular, we measure a significant enhancement of the polaron mass, with values exceeding twice the free dimer mass. Our demonstration of a stable repulsive Bose polaron establishes a platform for studying impurity physics in low-dimensional and strongly correlated systems.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Stabilization of Metallic, Excitonic Insulator, and Superionic Phases in Helium-Rare Gas Compounds at Sub-Terapascal Pressures

Helium and rare gases (RG: Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) are typically considered chemically inert, yet under the extreme pressures of planetary interiors they may form compounds with unexpected properties. Using crystal structure prediction and first-principles calculations, we mapped the phase diagram of binary He-RG systems up to $1$ TPa. We identify several previously unknown stoichiometric compounds that are both thermodynamically and vibrationally stable at sub-terapascal pressures, within the reach of modern high-pressure experiments. In particular, AHe$_{2}$ and AHe (A: Ar, Kr, Xe) adopt previously unreported orthorhombic, hexagonal and cubic phases that remain stable over wide pressure ranges. We further find that He-Xe systems host metallic and excitonic insulator phases at pressures nearly an order of magnitude lower than those required for pure helium, offering a pathway to realize these exotic quantum states experimentally. Finite-temperature simulations also reveal superionic He-Xe phases, in which helium ions diffuse either anisotropically or isotropically depending on the host lattice. These findings constitute the first prediction of helium-based systems that combine metallicity and superionicity, with profound implications for energy transport and planetary dynamo processes. Overall, our results demonstrate that mixing helium with heavier rare gases provides an effective strategy to stabilize metallic, excitonic insulator, and superionic phases at experimentally accessible pressures, opening new research directions for condensed matter physics and planetary science.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Thermal behavior of Bose-Einstein condensates of polar molecules

We use the finite-temperature extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation (TeGPE) to study a condensate of dipolar NaCs molecules under the conditions of the very recent, breakthrough experiment [Bigagli et.al., Nature 631, 289 (2024)]. We report the condensate fraction of the system, and its density profile after a time-of flight expansion for the coldest experimental case, finding excellent agreement with the experimental measurements. We also report the peak density of the ground state and establish a comparison with the experimental estimates. Our results, derived from the TeGPE formalism, successfully describe the Bose-Einstein condensation of polar molecules at finite temperature.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

On polarons and dimerons in the two-dimensional attractive Hubbard model

A two-dimensional spin-up ideal Fermi gas interacting attractively with a spin-down impurity in the continuum undergoes, at zero temperature, a first-order phase transition from a polaron to a dimeron state. Here we study a similar system on a square lattice, by considering the attractive 2D Fermi-Hubbard model with a single spin-down and a finite filling fraction of spin-up fermions. We study polaron and dimeron quasi-particle properties via variational Ansatz up to one particle-hole excitation. Moreover, we develop a determinant diagrammatic Monte Carlo algorithm for this problem based on expansion in bare on-site coupling $U$. This algorithm turns out to be sign-problem free at any filling of spin-up fermions, allowing one to sample very high diagram order (larger than $200$ in our study) and to do simulations for large $U/t$ (we go up to $U/t=-20$ with $t$ the hopping strength). Both methods give qualitatively consistent results. With variational Ansatz we go to even larger on-site attraction. In contrast with the continuum case, we do not observe any polaron-to-dimeron transition for a range of spin-up filling fractions $ρ_{\uparrow}$ between $0.1$ and $0.4$. % (away from the low-filling limit). The polaron state always gives a lower energy and has a finite quasi-particle residue.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Creating and melting a supersolid by heating a quantum dipolar system

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.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

The Bose polaron as thermometer of a trapped Bose gas: a quantum Monte Carlo study

Quantum impurities interacting with quantum environments offer unique insights into many-body systems. Here, we explore the thermometric potential of a neutral impurity immersed in a harmonically trapped bosonic quantum gas below the Bose-Einstein condensation critical temperature $T_c$. Using ab-initio Path Integral Monte Carlo simulations at finite temperatures, we analyze the impurity's sensitivity to temperature changes by exploiting experimentally accessible observables such as its spatial distribution. Our results, covering a temperature range of $-1.1 \leqslant T/T_c \leqslant 0.9$, reveal that the impurity outperforms estimations based on a one-species bath at lower temperatures, achieving relative precision of 3-4\% for 1000 measurement repetitions. While non-zero boson-impurity interaction strength $g_{BI}$ slightly reduces the accuracy, the impurity's performance remains robust, especially in the low-temperature regime $T/T_c \lesssim 0.45$ withing the analyzed interaction strengths $0 \leqslant g_{BI}/g \leqslant 5$, where $g$ is the boson-boson coupling. We confirm that quantum optical models can capture rather well the dependence of the temperature sensor on the impurity-gas interaction. Although our findings are in qualitative agreement with previous studies, our Monte Carlo simulations offer improved precision. We find that the maximum likelihood estimation protocol approaches the precision comparable to the limit set by the Quantum Fisher Information bound. Finally, using the Hellinger distance method, we directly extract the Fisher information and find that, by exploiting the extremum order statistics, impurities far from the trap center are more sensitive to thermal effects than those close to the trap center.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Equation of state of Bose gases beyond the universal regime

The equation of state of dilute Bose gases, in which the energy only depends on the $s$-wave scattering length, is rather unknown beyond the universal limit. We have carried out a bunch of diffusion Monte Carlo calculations up to gas parameters of $10^{-2}$ to explore how the departure from the universality emerges. Using different model potentials, we calculate the energies of the gas in an exact way, within some statistical noise, and report the results as a function of the three relevant scattering parameters: the $s$-wave scattering length $a_0$, the $s$-wave effective range $r_0$, and the $p$-wave scattering length $a_1$. If the effective range is not large we observe universality in terms of $a_0$ and $r_0$ up to gas parameters of $10^{-2}$. If $r_0$ grows the regime of universality in these two parameters is reduced and effects of $a_1$ start to be observed. In the $(a_0,r_0)$ universal regime we propose an analytical law that reproduces fairly well the exact energies.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Interaction effects on the itinerant ferromagnetism phase transition

Itinerant ferromagnetism is one of the most studied quantum phase transitions, the transition point and the nature of this phase transition being widely discussed. In dilute Fermi liquids, this analysis has been carried out up to second-order in the gas parameter, where the results for any spin degeneracy are universal in terms of only the s-wave scattering length $a_0$. We extend this analysis to third-order where energies depend, not only on $a_0$, but also on the s-wave effective range $r_0$ and the p-wave scattering length $a_1$. The introduction in the theory of these new parameters changes the transition point, with respect to the second-order estimation, and also can modify the nature of the phase transition itself. We analyze these interaction effects on the phase transition for different spin values. The emerging phase diagram shows that the type of ferromagnetic transition changes dramatically as a function of $r_0$ and $a_1$ and, importantly, that this classification is not solely determined by the spin value, as happens at second order.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Dipolar droplets of strongly interacting molecules

We simulate a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate in the strongly dipolar regime, observing the existence of self-bound droplets, as well as their splitting into multiple droplets by confinement-induced frustration. Our quantum Monte Carlo approach goes beyond the limits of the established effective mean-field theories for dipolar quantum gases, revealing small droplets produced by strong dipolar interactions outside known stable regimes. The simulations include realistic molecular interactions and therefore have direct relevance for current and future experiments.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Beyond universality in repulsive SU(N) Fermi gases

Itinerant ferromagnetism in dilute Fermi gases is predicted to emerge at values of the gas parameter where second-order perturbation theory is not accurate enough to properly describe the system. We have revisited perturbation theory for SU(N) fermions and derived its generalization up to third order both in terms of the gas parameter and the polarization. Our results agree satisfactorily with quantum Monte Carlo results for hard-sphere and soft-sphere potentials for $S = 1/2$. Although the nature of the phase transition depends on the interaction potential, we find that for a hard-sphere potential a phase transition is guaranteed to occur. While for $S= 1/2$ we observe a quasi-continuous transition, for spins $3/2$ and $5/2$, a first-order phase transition is found. For larger spins, a double transition (combination of continuous and discontinuous) occurs. The critical density reduces drastically when the spin increases, making the phase transition more accessible to experiments with ultracold dilute Fermi gases. Estimations for Fermi gases of Yb and Sr with spin $5/2$ and $9/2$, respectively, are reported.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2024

Ring solids and supersolids in spherical shell-shaped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the interplay between the anisotropy of the dipole-dipole interaction and confinement in a curved geometry by means of the extended Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which allows us to characterize the ground state of a dipolar Bose gas under the confinement of a bubble trapping potential. We do so in terms of the scattering length a and the number of particles. We observe the emergence of a wide variety of dipolar solids, consisting on arrangements of different number of droplets along a ring over the equator of the spherical shell confinement. We also show that the transition between the different phases of the system can be engineered by varying a, the number of particles or the radius of the trap, parameters which can be experimentally tuned. Finally, we show the importance of working in microgravity conditions as gravity unstabilizes the observed dipolar solids.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗