https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60381-0
Regular Article
Exploring quantum phase slips in 1D bosonic systems
1 LENS and Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
2 Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
a e-mail: scaffidi@lens.unifi.it
b e-mail: derrico@lens.unifi.it
Received: 9 December 2016
Revised: 11 January 2017
Published online: 26 July 2017
Quantum phase slips, i.e., the primary excitations in one-dimensional superfluids at low temperature, have been well characterized in most condensed-matter systems, with the notable exception of ultracold quantum gases. Here we present our experimental investigation of the dissipation in one-dimensional Bose superfluids flowing along a periodic potential, which show signatures of the presence of quantum phase slips. In particular, by controlling the velocity of the superfluid and the interaction between the bosons we are apparently able to drive a crossover from a regime of thermal phase slips into a regime of quantum phase slips. Achieving a good control of quantum phase slips in ultracold quantum gases requires to keep under control other phenomena such as the breaking of superfluidity at the critical velocity or the appearance of a Mott insulator in the strongly correlated regime. Here we show our current results in these directions.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2017
