Leticia Tarruell: "Gotas de líquidos cuánticos en condensados de Bose-Einstein con interacciones atractivas"

Leticia Tarruell, Institute of Photonic Sciences, (ICFO).Dilute quantum droplets are clusters of ultra-cold atoms self-trapped by attractive mean-field forces, and stabilized against collapse by the repulsive effect of quantum fluctuations. Despite not falling into the standard van der Waals picture of liquids, their properties are liquid-like and reveal beyond mean-field effects in a weaklyinteracting system. In my talk, I will describe our experimental observation of quantum droplets in a mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates and the experimental study of the corresponding liquid-to-gas phase transition [1]. I will also discuss the difference existing between bright solitons and quantum droplets, which from a non-linear optics perspective can be understood as high-dimensional solitons stabilized by a higher order non-linearity due to quantum fluctuations [2]. I will conclude by presenting the most recent experimental developments of the group.[1]C. R. Cabrera, L. Tanzi, J. Sanz, B. Naylor, P. Thomas, P. Cheiney, and L. Tarruell, Science 359, 301 (2018).[2]P. Cheiney, C. R. Cabrera, J. Sanz, B. Naylor, L. Tanzi, and L. Tarruell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 135301 (2018).