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

Abstract

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 introduced dissipation to couple the two modes, the system followed a directed circular path through phase space, rotating between the modes. Science , this issue p. 1496