Work

Bose-Einstein Condensates of Microwave-Shielded Polar Molecules

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We investigate the ground-state phases of ultracold gases composed of bosonic microwave-shielded polar molecules (MSPMs). Using a translational symmetry-breaking variational ansatz with Jastrow correlations, we characterize the many-body correlations arising from the large shielding core of the two-body potential in a dense gas. We show that the molecular gases are always stabilized by the shielding potential and support a self-bound gas phase and an expanding gas phase. Furthermore, we find that, analogous to liquid ^{4}He, the condensate fraction is significantly reduced when the size of the shielding core of the two-body potential becomes comparable to the intermolecular distance. For experimental detection, we also identify a bimodal feature in the momentum distribution. Our work invalidates the application of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation to molecular gases and establishes a universal framework to reveal the many-body correlations in dense molecular gases.

Source: Physical Review Letters

DOI: 10.1103/b8y9-yvz9

Authors: Wei-Jian Jin, Fulin Deng, Su Yi, Tao Shi

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University, Ningbo University, Beihang University

Language: English

Topic: Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Project, National Key Research and Development Program of China

Awards: G2336669255, G2338188619, G6223049905, G799711718, G8181039722