Dissipation-induced structural instability and chiral dynamics in a quantum gas

Chirality by dissipation Quantum many-body systems can display exotic dynamics in the presence of dissipation. Dogra et al. studied such dynamics in a system consisting of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate located in an optical cavity and exposed to a standing wave of laser light. Light scattering off the atomic cloud and into the cavity resulted in two distinct, spatially patterned collective modes for the atoms. When the researchers then...