SU(3) spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic plus quartic trap

We consider a SU(3) spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic plus quartic trap.The ground-state wave functions of such a system are obtained by minimizing the Gross–Pitaevskii energy functional, and the effects of the spin-dependent interaction and spin–orbit coupling are investigated in detail.For the case of ferromagnetic spin interaction, the SU(3) spin–orbit coupling induces a threefold-degenerate plane wave ground state with nontrivial spin texture.For the case of antiferromagnetic spin interaction, the system shows phase separation for weak SU(3) spin–orbit coupling, where three discrete minima with unequal weights in momentum space are selected, while hexagonal honeycomb lattice structure for strong SU(3) SOC, where three discrete minima with equal weights are selected.     

Global phase diagram of a spin–orbit-coupled Kondo lattice model on the honeycomb lattice

Motivated by the growing interest in the novel quantum phases in materials with strong electron correlations and spin–orbit coupling, we study the interplay among the spin–orbit coupling, Kondo interaction, and magnetic frustration of a Kondo lattice model on a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.We calculate the renormalized electronic structure and correlation functions at the saddle point based on a fermionic representation of the spin operators.We find a global phase diagram of the model at half-filling, which contains a variety of phases due to the competing interactions.In addition to a Kondo insulator, there is a topological insulator with valence bond solid correlations in the spin sector, and two antiferromagnetic phases.Due to the competition between the spin–orbit coupling and Kondo interaction, the direction of the magnetic moments in the antiferromagnetic phases can be either within or perpendicular to the lattice plane.The latter antiferromagnetic state is topologically nontrivial for moderate and strong spin–orbit couplings.     

Quantum spin Hall and quantum valley Hall effects in trilayer graphene and their topological structures

The present study pertains to the trilayer graphene in the presence of spin orbit coupling to probe the quantum spin/valley Hall effect. The spin Chern-number C_s for energy-bands of trilayer graphene having the essence of intrinsic spin–orbit coupling is analytically calculated. We find that for each valley and spin, C_s is three times larger in trilayer graphene as compared to single layer graphene. Since the spin Chern-number corresponds to the number of edge states,consequently the trilayer graphene has edge states, three times more in comparison to single layer graphene. We also study the trilayer graphene in the presence of both electric-field and intrinsic spin–orbit coupling and investigate that the trilayer graphene goes through a phase transition from a quantum spin Hall state to a quantum valley Hall state when the strength of the electric field exceeds the intrinsic spin coupling strength. The robustness of the associated topological bulk-state of the trilayer graphene is evaluated by adding various perturbations such as Rashba spin–orbit(RSO) interaction αR, and exchange-magnetization M. In addition, we consider a theoretical model, where only one of the outer layers in trilayer graphene has the essence of intrinsic spin–orbit coupling, while the other two layers have zero intrinsic spin–orbit coupling.Although the first Chern number is non-zero for individual valleys of trilayer graphene in this model, however, we find that the system cannot be regarded as a topological insulator because the system as a whole is not gaped.     

Spin transport properties of a Dresselhaus-polygonal quantum ring

We propose a theoretical method to investigate the effect of the Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling(DSOC) on the spin transport properties of a regular polygonal quantum ring with an arbitrary number of segments. We find that the DSOC can break the time reversal symmetry of the spin conductance in a polygonal ring and that this property can be used to reverse the spin direction of electrons in the polygon with the result that a pure spin up or pure spin down conductance can be obtained by exchanging the source and the drain. When the DSOC is considered in a polygonal ring with Rashba spin–orbit coupling(RSOC) with symmetric attachment of the leads, the total conductance is independent of the number of segments when both of the two types of spin–orbit coupling(SOC) have the same value. However, the interaction of the two types of SOC results in an anisotropic and shape-dependent conductance in a polygonal ring with asymmetric attachment of the leads. The method we proposed to solve for the spin conductance of a polygon can be generalized to the circular model.     

Floquet topological phase transition in two-dimensional quadratic band crossing system

We investigate the Hall effects of quadratic band crossing(QBC) fermions in a square optical lattice with spin–orbit coupling and orbital Zeeman term. We find that the orbital Zeeman term and shaking play critical roles in the systems,which can drive a topological transition from spin Hall phases to anomalous Hall phase with nonvanishing(spin) Chern numbers. Due to the interplay among the orbital Zeeman term, spin–orbit coupling, and the shaking, the phase diagram of the system exhibits rich phases, which are characterized by Chern number.     

Magnetic impurity in hybrid and type-Ⅱ nodal line semimetals

We study the Kondo screening of a spin-1/2 magnetic impurity in the hybrid nodal line semimetals(NLSMs) and the type-Ⅱ NLSMs by using the variational method. We mainly study the binding energy and the spin–spin correlation between magnetic impurity and conduction electrons. We find that in both the hybrid and type-Ⅱ cases, the density of states(DOS) is always finite, so the impurity and the conduction electrons always form bound states, and the bound state is more easily formed when the DOS is large. Meanwhile, due to the unique dispersion relation and the spin–orbit couplings in the NLSMs, the spatial spin–spin correlation components show very interesting features. Most saliently, various components of the spatial spin–spin correlation function decay with 1/r~2 in the hybrid NLSMs, while they follow 1/r~3 decay in the type-Ⅱ NLSMs. This property is mainly caused by the special band structures in the NLSMs, and it can work as a fingerprint to distinguish the two types of NLSMs.     

Topological superfluid in a two-dimensional polarized Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling and adiabatic rotation

We study the properties of superfluid in a two-dimensional(2 D) polarized Fermi gas with spin–orbit coupling and adiabatic rotation which are trapped in a harmonic potential. Due to the competition between polarization, spin–orbit coupling, and adiabatic rotation, the Fermi gas exhibits many intriguing phenomena. By using the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer(BCS) mean-field method with local density approximation, we investigate the dependence of order parameter solution on the spin–orbit coupling strength and the rotation velocity. The energy spectra with different rotation velocities are studied in detail. Besides, the conditions for the zero-energy Majorana fermions in topological superfluid phase to be observed are obtained. By investigating distributions of number density, we find that the rotation has opposite effect on the distribution of number density with different spins, which leads to the enhancement of the polarization of Fermi gas. Here,we focus on the region of BCS pairing and ignore the Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov state.     

Spin–orbit-coupled spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates confined in radially periodic potential

We investigate the ground states of spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) with spin–orbit coupling in a radiallyperiodic potential by numerically solving the coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations. In the radially periodic potential, wefirst demonstrate that spin–orbit-coupled antiferromagnetic BECs support a multiring petal phase. Polar–core vortex canbe observed from phase profiles, which is manifested as circularly symmetric distribution. We further show that spin–orbitcoupling can induce multiring soliton structure in ferromagnetic BECs. It is confirmed especially that the wave-functionphase of the ring corresponding to uniform distribution satisfies the rotational symmetry, and the wave-function phase ofthe ring corresponding to partial splitting breaks the rotational symmetry. Adjusting the spin–orbit coupling strength cancontrol the number of petal in antiferromagnetic BECs and the winding numbers of wave-function in ferromagnetic BECs.Finally, we discuss effects of spin-independent and spin-dependent interactions on the ground states.     

Spin texturing in a parabolically confined quantum wire with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin–orbit interactions

In this study, we investigate theoretically the effect of spin–orbit coupling on the energy level spectrum and spin texturing of a quantum wire with a parabolic confining potential subjected to the perpendicular magnetic field. Highly accurate numerical calculations have been carried out using a finite element method. Our results reveal that the interplay between the spin–orbit interaction and the effective magnetic field significantly modifies the band structure, producing additional subband extrema and energy gaps. Competing effects between external field and spin–orbit interactions introduce complex features in spin texturing owing to the couplings in energy subbands. We obtain that spatial modulation of the spin density along the wire width can be considerably modified by the spin–orbit coupling strength, magnetic field and charge carrier concentration.     

Moving bright solitons in a pseudo-spin polarization Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the moving bright solitons in the weak attractive Bose–Einstein condensate with a spin–orbit interaction. By solving the coupled nonlinear Schr ?dinger equation with the variational method and the imaginary time evolution method,two kinds of solitons(plane wave soliton and stripe solitons) are found in different parameter regions. It is shown that the soliton speed dominates its structure. The detuning between the Raman beam and energy states of the atoms decides the spin polarization strength of the system. The soliton dynamics is also studied for various moving speed and we find that the shape of individual components can be kept when the speed of soliton is low.     

Properties of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates

The experimental and theoretical research of spin–orbit-coupled ultracold atomic gases has advanced and expanded rapidly in recent years. Here, we review some of the progress that either was pioneered by our own work, has helped to lay the foundation, or has developed new and relevant techniques. After examining the experimental accessibility of all relevant spin–orbit coupling parameters, we discuss the fundamental properties and general applications of spin–orbit-coupled Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) over a wide range of physical situations. For the harmonically trapped case, we show that the ground state phase transition is a Dicke-type process and that spin–orbit-coupled BECs provide a unique platform to simulate and study the Dicke model and Dicke phase transitions. For a homogeneous BEC, we discuss the collective excitations, which have been observed experimentally using Bragg spectroscopy. They feature a roton-like minimum, the softening of which provides a potential mechanism to understand the ground state phase transition. On the other hand, if the collective dynamics are excited by a sudden quenching of the spin–orbit coupling parameters, we show that the resulting collective dynamics can be related to the famous Zitterbewegung in the relativistic realm. Finally, we discuss the case of a BEC loaded into a periodic optical potential. Here, the spin–orbit coupling generates isolated flat bands within the lowest Bloch bands whereas the nonlinearity of the system leads to dynamical instabilities of these Bloch waves. The experimental verification of this instability illustrates the lack of Galilean invariance in the system.     

Rotating spin-1/2 Bose-Einstein condensates in a gradient magnetic field with spin-orbit coupling

We study the ground-state phases of two-dimensional rotating spin–orbit coupled spin-1/2 Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) in a gradient magnetic field. The competition between gradient magnetic field, spin–orbit coupling and rotation leads to a variety of ground-state phase structures. In the weakly rotation regime, as the increase of gradient magnetic field strength, the BECs experiences a phase transition from the unstable phase to the single vortex-line phase. The unstable phase presents the vortex lines structures along the off-diagonal direction. With magnetic field gradient strength increasing, the number of vortex lines changes accordingly. As the magnetic field gradient strength increases further, the single vortex-line phase with a single vortex line along the diagonal direction is formed. The phase diagram shows that the boundary between the two phases is linear with the relative repulsion λ≥1 and is nonlinear with λ<1. In the relatively strong rotation regime, in addition to the unstable phase and the single vortex-line phase, the vortex-ring phase is formed for the strong magnetic field gradient and rapid rotation. The vortex-ring phase shows the giant and hidden vortex structures at the center of ring. The strong magnetic field gradient makes the number of the vortices around the ring unchanged.     

Dynamics and formation of vortices collapsed from ring dark solitons in a two-dimensional spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensate

We consider the dynamics and formation of vortices from ring dark solitons in a two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate with the Rashba spin–orbit coupling based on the time-dependent coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equation. Compared with previous results, the system exhibits complex dynamical behaviors in the presence of the spin–orbit coupling. With the modulation of the spin–orbit coupling, not only the lifetime of ring dark solitons is greatly prolonged, but also their attenuation kinetics is significantly affected. For two shallow ring dark solitons with the equal strength of the spin–orbit coupling, the radius of ring dark solitons increases to a maximum value over time and then shrinks into a minimum value. Due to the effect of the snake instability, ring dark solitons split into a series of ring-like clusters of vortex pairs, which perform complex oscillations. This indicates that the system is strongly dependent on the presence of the spin–orbit coupling. Furthermore, the effect of different initial modulation depths on the dynamics of ring dark solitons is investigated.     

Coherent control of spin tunneling in a driven spin–orbit coupled bosonic triple well

We investigate the coherent control of spin tunneling for a spin–orbit (SO) coupled boson trapped in a driven triple well. In the high-frequency limit, the quasienergies of the system are obtained analytically and the fine energy band structures are shown. By regulating the driving parameters, we reveal that the directed spin-flipping or spin-conserving tunneling of an SO-coupled boson occurs along different pathways and in different directions. The analytical results are demonstrated by numerical simulations and good agreements are found. Further, an interesting scheme of quantum spin tunneling switch with or without spin-flipping is presented. The results may have potential applications in the design of spintronic devices.     

Bright soliton dynamics in Fourier synthesized optical lattice

We consider the dynamics of bright solitons in one dimensional Bose Einstein condensate with spin orbit coupling and trapped by an optical lattice potential. We mainly focus on the effects of the spin orbit coupling, Rabi coupling and detuning parameter on the soliton dynamics. The solution of the coupled Gross Pitaevskii equation is performed with the help of the variational and numerical methods for various parameters. The population imbalance and the center of mass motion show different dynamic behaviors depending on the parameters. We also obtain traveling bright solitons related with a given finite initial momentum.     

Topological excitations in rotating spin–orbit-coupled spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates with in-plane gradient magnetic field

We investigate the topological excitations of rotating spin-1 ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensates with spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in an in-plane quadrupole field. Such a system sustains a rich variety of exotic vortex structures due to the spinor order parameter and the interplay among in-plane quadrupole field, SOC, rotation, and interatomic interaction. For the nonrotating case, with the increase of the quadrupole field strength, the system experiences a transition from a coreless polar-core vortex with a bright soliton to a singular polar-core vortex with a density hole. Without rotation but with a fixed quadrupole field, when the SOC strength increases, the system transforms from a central Mermin–Ho vortex into a criss-crossed vortex–antivortex string lattice. For the rotating case, we give a phase diagram with respect to the quadrupole field strength and the SOC strength. It is shown that the rotating system supports four typical quantum phases: vortex necklace, diagonal vortex chain cluster, single diagonal vortex chain, and few vortex states. Furthermore, the system favors novel spin textures and skyrmion excitations including an antiskyrmion, a criss-crossed half-skyrmion–half-antiskyrmion lattice, a skyrmion-meron necklace, a symmetric half-skyrmion lattice, and an asymmetric skyrmion-meron lattice.     

Stable striped state in a rotating two-dimensional spin–orbit coupled spin-1/2 Bose–Einstein condensate

We consider an effective two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate with some spin–orbit coupling (SOC) and a rotation term in an external harmonic potential. We find the striped state, and analyze the effects of SOC, the external potential, and the rotation frequency/direction on the profile and the stability of the striped state. Without the rotation term, the two spinor components exhibit striped pattern, and the numbers of stripes in the two components are always an odd–even or an even–odd. With the increase of the SOC strength, the number of stripes in both components increases, while the difference of the striped numbers is always one. After adding the rotation term, the profiles of the spinor components change qualitatively, and the change regulation of the striped numbers differs, while the difference of the striped numbers is still one. In addition, we find that the rotation direction only makes the striped state of the two spinor components exchange each other, though the clockwise and counterclockwise rotation directions are inequivalent with the presence of SOC. Such regulation is different from the previous study. And the rotation frequency gives rise to the transition from the striped state to a mixture of the striped state and vortex state. Furthermore, we prove the stability of these states by the evolution and linear stability analysis.     

Effect of non-uniform exchange field in ferromagnetic graphene

We have presented here the consequences of the non-uniform exchange field on the spin transport issues in spin chiral configuration of ferromagnetic graphene. Taking resort to the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) term and non-uniform exchange coupling term we are successful to express the expression of Hall conductivity in terms of the exchange field and SOC parameters through the Kubo formula approach. However, for a specific configuration of the exchange parameter we have evaluated the Berry curvature of the system. We also have paid attention to the study of SU(2) gauge theory of ferromagnetic graphene. The generation of anti damping spin–orbit torque in spin chiral magnetic graphene is also briefly discussed.     

Dynamical effects of spin-dependent interactions in low- and intermediate-energy heavy-ion reactions

It is well known that noncentral nuclear forces, such as the spin–orbital coupling and the tensor force, play important roles in understanding many interesting features of nuclear structures. However, their dynamical effects in nuclear reactions are poorly known because only the spin-averaged observables are normally studied both experimentally and theoretically. Realizing that spin-sensitive observables in nuclear reactions may convey useful information about the in-medium properties of noncentral nuclear interactions, besides earlier studies using the time-dependent Hartree–Fock approach to understand the effects of spin–orbital coupling on the threshold energy and spin polarization in fusion reactions, some efforts have been made recently to explore the dynamical effects of noncentral nuclear forces in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions using transport models. The focus of these studies has been on investigating signatures of the density and isospin dependence of the form factor in the spin-dependent single-nucleon potential. Interestingly, some useful probes were identified in the model studies but so far there are still no data to compare with. In this brief review, we summarize the main physics motivations as well as the recent progress in understanding the spin dynamics and identifying spin-sensitive observables in heavy-ion reactions at intermediate energies. We hope the interesting, important, and new physics potentials identified in the spin dynamics of heavy-ion collisions will stimulate more experimental work in this direction.     

Pairing of solitons in two-dimensional S=1 magnets

We study a general model of isotropic two-dimensional spin-1 magnet, which is relevant for the physics of ultracold atoms with hyperfine S=1 spins in an optical lattice at odd filling. We demonstrate a novel mechanism of soliton pairing occurring in the vicinity of a special point with an enhanced SU(3) symmetry: upon perturbing the SU(3) symmetry, solitons with odd CP2 topological charge are confined into pairs that remain stable objects.