Supersolid-like solitons in two-dimensional nonmagnetic spin-orbit coupled spin-1 and spin-2 condensates

We demonstrate spontaneous generation of spatially-periodic supersolid-like super-lattice and stripe solitons in Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupled spin-1 and spin-2 quasi-two-dimensional nonmagnetic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The solitons in a weakly SO-coupled spin-1 BEC are circularly-symmetric of (-1, 0, +1) and (0, +1, +2) types and have inherent vorticity; the numbers in the parentheses are the winding numbers in hyper-spin components +1, 0, -1, respectively. The circularly-symmetric solitons in an SO-coupled spin-2 BEC are of types (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2) and (-1, 0, +1, +2, +3) with the former being the ground state, where the winding numbers correspond to spin components +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, respectively. For stronger SO-coupling strengths, these solitons acquire a multiring structure while preserving the winding numbers. Quasi-degenerate stripe and super-lattice solitons, besides a circularly -asymmetric soliton, also emerge as excited stationary states for stronger SO-coupling strengths in spin-1 and spin-2 BECs. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

We demonstrate the spontaneous generation of spatially-periodic supersolid-like super-lattice and stripe solitons in Rashba spin-orbit coupled spin-1 and spin-2 quasi-two-dimensional nonmagnetic Bose-Einstein condensates. The solitons in a weakly spin-orbit coupled spin-1 condensate are circularly-symmetric with inherent vorticity, while the solitons in an spin-orbit coupled spin-2 condensate have multiple types of circularly-symmetric shapes and can acquire a multiring structure with stronger coupling strengths. Additionally, quasi-degenerate stripe and super-lattice solitons emerge as excited stationary states for stronger spin-orbit coupling strengths.