Probing supersolidity through excitations in a spin-orbit–coupled Bose-Einstein condensate
Abstract
Spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates are a flexible experimental platform to engineer synthetic quantum many-body systems. In particular, they host the so-called stripe phase, an instance of a supersolid state of matter. The peculiar excitation spectrum of the stripe phase, a definite footprint of its supersolidity, has been difficult to measure experimentally. In this work, we performed in situ imaging of the stripes and directly observed both superfluid and crystal excitations. We investigated superfluid hydrodynamics and revealed a stripe compression mode, thus demonstrating that the system possesses a compressible crystalline structure. Through the frequency softening of this mode, we located the supersolid transition point. Our results establish spin-orbit-coupled supersolids as ideal systems to investigate supersolidity and its rich dynamics.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
Quantum
superfluid
helium dynamics
Strong Light-Matter Interactions
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Science
- Publisher
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Volume
- 391
- Issue
- 6784
- Pages
- 480–484
- Publication date
- 29 January 2026
- Language
- EN