Kavli Affiliate: Leon Balents
| First 5 Authors: Ethan C. McGarrigle, Kris T. Delaney, Leon Balents, Glenn H. Fredrickson
| Summary:
Recent experiments have shown how the interplay between Bose statistics and
spin-orbit coupling (SOC) can lead to superfluid liquid crystalline (stripe)
analogues in cold atomic gases. For isotropic SOC in two spatial dimensions, a
Rashba dispersion is encountered where a continuous ring of single-particle
states constitutes a massive ground-state degeneracy. Here, we perform
approximation-free field-theoretic simulations of ensembles of interacting
Rashba bosons and find a spin microemulsion phase with bicontinuous,
antiferromagnetic domains. The microemulsion emerges at elevated temperatures
as the low-temperature stripe phase undergoes a Kosterlitz–Thouless-like
transition and loses superfluidity. Momentum distribution calculations
highlight a thermally broadened occupation of the Rashba circle of low-energy
states with macroscopic and isotropic occupation around the ring. We provide a
finite-temperature phase diagram that positions the emulsion as an
intermediate, structured isotropic phase with residual quantum character before
transitioning at higher temperature into a structureless normal fluid.
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