bose-einstein condensates

optical lattice

Physical Review Letters

Quantum fluctuations are the origin of genuine quantum many-body effects, and can be neglected in classical mean-field phenomena. Here, we report on the observation of stable quantum droplets containing ∼800 atoms that are expected to collapse at the mean-field level due to the essentially attractive interaction. By systematic measurements on individual droplets we demonstrate quantitatively that quantum fluctuations mechanically stabilize them against the mean-field collapse. We observe in addition the interference of several droplets indicating that this stable many-body state is phase coherent.Received 13 January 2016DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.215301© 2016 American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasQuantum statistical mechanicsPhysical SystemsBose gasesDipolar gasesTechniquesCooling & trappingCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsAtomic, Molecular & Optical

Observation of Quantum Droplets in a Strongly Dipolar Bose Gas