Pancake-shaped vortex droplets in dipolar molecular BECs
Abstract
Anisotropic interactions profoundly affect topological excitations in quantum fluids. Motivated by recent advances in the studies of microwave-shielded polar molecules, we introduce self-trapped modes in the form of pancake-shaped quantum droplets (QDs) with embedded vorticity, which are maintained by strongly anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions. The stability region of singly charged (S=1) vortices nearly coincides with that of the ground-state QDs (S=0), demonstrating the robustness of the vortex states. The strong anisotropy of the system splits the core (pivot) of vortex QDs with S=2 into separated unitary ones. The angular momentum and stability of the state with S=2 are affected by the separation between the unitary cores. Higher-charge vortex QDs with S>2 are stable too, for sufficiently large particle numbers and inter-core separations. On the other hand, bound vortex-antivortex pairs with S=± 1 are unstable. Head-on collisions between the vortex QDs exhibit distinct regimes, including rebound, merger, and fragmentation. Tuning the cylindrically symmetric component of the dipolar interaction reveals a pronounced sign-dependent response: positive tuning preserves the self-bound vortex, whereas negative tuning drives expansion and fragmentation. The results demonstrate that the microwave-dressed molecular QDs offer a robust platform for the realization of self-trapped vortex states, demonstrating how the strong anisotropy reshapes their structure, stability, and dynamics.
Related
- How dipolar interactions structure molecular droplets
- Formation and dynamics of self-bound droplets in dipolar molecular condensate
- Probing near-surface potentials with the self-binding threshold of dipolar quantum droplets
- Analytic phase solution and point vortex model for dipolar quantum vortices
- Study of quantum turbulence by vortex-antivortex dynamics in dipolar BECs
BibTeX
@misc{zhao2026pancakeshaped,
title = {{Pancake-shaped vortex droplets in dipolar molecular BECs}},
author = {Zibin Zhao and Xinyi Tang and Tianmiao Zhang and Zhaopin Chen and Huanbo Luo and Guihua Chen and Bin Liu and Boris A. Malomed and Yongyao Li},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.32342},
eprint = {2609.32342},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.32342},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Pancake-shaped vortex droplets in dipolar molecular BECs
AU - Zibin Zhao
AU - Xinyi Tang
AU - Tianmiao Zhang
AU - Zhaopin Chen
AU - Huanbo Luo
AU - Guihua Chen
AU - Bin Liu
AU - Boris A. Malomed
AU - Yongyao Li
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/26
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.32342
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.32342
AB - Anisotropic interactions profoundly affect topological excitations in quantum fluids. Motivated by recent advances in the studies of microwave-shielded polar molecules, we introduce self-trapped modes in the form of pancake-shaped quantum droplets (QDs) with embedded vorticity, which are maintained by strongly anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions. The stability region of singly charged (S=1) vortices nearly coincides with that of the ground-state QDs (S=0), demonstrating the robustness of the vortex states. The strong anisotropy of the system splits the core (pivot) of vortex QDs with S=2 into separated unitary ones. The angular momentum and stability of the state with S=2 are affected by the separation between the unitary cores. Higher-charge vortex QDs with S>2 are stable too, for sufficiently large particle numbers and inter-core separations. On the other hand, bound vortex-antivortex pairs with S=± 1 are unstable. Head-on collisions between the vortex QDs exhibit distinct regimes, including rebound, merger, and fragmentation. Tuning the cylindrically symmetric component of the dipolar interaction reveals a pronounced sign-dependent response: positive tuning preserves the self-bound vortex, whereas negative tuning drives expansion and fragmentation. The results demonstrate that the microwave-dressed molecular QDs offer a robust platform for the realization of self-trapped vortex states, demonstrating how the strong anisotropy reshapes their structure, stability, and dynamics.
ER -