Spin-Orbit Induced Confinement of Correlated Bound States in the Continuum
Abstract
Repulsively bound doublons are two-particle composites formed by strong interactions and are usually separated from the scattering continuum. Introducing spin-orbit coupling fundamentally alters the underlying band structure, providing a powerful tuning knob to shift these isolated pairs toward this continuum. However, because entering such a regime typically dictates immediate dissociation, whether this coupling can drive these pairs inside while preserving their bound nature constitutes a fundamental unresolved challenge. Here we show that spin-orbit coupling in the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model can drive doublons into the two-particle scattering continuum. Most of these states hybridize with extended channels and decay, whereas a subset remains decoupled and spatially bound, forming many-body bound states in the continuum (BICs). We map the interacting two-particle problem onto a two-dimensional lattice of coupled acoustic cavities, and experimentally observe both the radiating doublon continuum and the confined BIC states. These results demonstrate that spin-orbit coupling can turn selected doublons into interaction-induced BICs, deepening the understanding of continuum physics for interaction-bound pairs.
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BibTeX
@misc{chen2026spinorbit,
title = {{Spin-Orbit Induced Confinement of Correlated Bound States in the Continuum}},
author = {Kai Chen and Junyan Guan and Zhongming Gu and Jie Zhu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.24429},
eprint = {2609.24429},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24429},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spin-Orbit Induced Confinement of Correlated Bound States in the Continuum
AU - Kai Chen
AU - Junyan Guan
AU - Zhongming Gu
AU - Jie Zhu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.24429
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24429
AB - Repulsively bound doublons are two-particle composites formed by strong interactions and are usually separated from the scattering continuum. Introducing spin-orbit coupling fundamentally alters the underlying band structure, providing a powerful tuning knob to shift these isolated pairs toward this continuum. However, because entering such a regime typically dictates immediate dissociation, whether this coupling can drive these pairs inside while preserving their bound nature constitutes a fundamental unresolved challenge. Here we show that spin-orbit coupling in the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model can drive doublons into the two-particle scattering continuum. Most of these states hybridize with extended channels and decay, whereas a subset remains decoupled and spatially bound, forming many-body bound states in the continuum (BICs). We map the interacting two-particle problem onto a two-dimensional lattice of coupled acoustic cavities, and experimentally observe both the radiating doublon continuum and the confined BIC states. These results demonstrate that spin-orbit coupling can turn selected doublons into interaction-induced BICs, deepening the understanding of continuum physics for interaction-bound pairs.
ER -