Work

Unified theory of attractive and repulsive polarons in a one-dimensional Bose gas

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: We present a unified description of attractive and repulsive polarons, formed in a one-dimensional Bose gas hosting an impurity particle, by obtaining all ground- and excited-state solutions to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Modeling the impurity with an attractive square-well potential, we characterize the excited-state energy branches as a function of interaction strength. As the impurity-bath coupling increases, the excited states change from distinct soliton configurations to hybridized soliton-polaron states, eventually crossing over from repulsive to attractive polarons at unitarity. We identify a universal regime near this crossover where the polaron properties are accurately characterized by the zero-energy scattering length.

Source: Physical Review A

DOI: 10.1103/4tcn-t6y2

Authors: Nikolay Yegovtsev, T. Alper Yoğurt, Matthew T. Eiles, Victor Gurarie

Institutions: University of Pittsburgh, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Purdue University West Lafayette, University of Colorado Boulder

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: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,675

Funders: Simons Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research