We observe experimentally the spontaneous formation of star-shaped surface patterns in driven Bose-Einstein condensates. Two-dimensional star-shaped patterns with $l$-fold symmetry, ranging from quadrupole ($l=2$) to heptagon modes ($l=7$), are parametrically excited by modulating the scattering length near the Feshbach resonance. An effective Mathieu equation and Floquet analysis are utilized, relating the instability conditions to the dispersion of the surface modes in a trapped superfluid. Identifying the resonant frequencies of the patterns, we precisely measure the dispersion relation of the collective excitations. The oscillation amplitude of the surface excitations increases exponentially during the modulation. We find that only the $l=6$ mode is unstable due to its emergent coupling with the dipole motion of the cloud. Our experimental results are in excellent agreement with the mean-field framework. Our work opens a new pathway for generating higher-lying collective excitations with applications, such as the probing of exotic properties of quantum fluids and providing a generation mechanism of quantum turbulence.

A Faraday-wave-like parametric instability is investigated via mean-field and Floquet analysis in immiscible binary Bose-Einstein condensates. The condensates form a so-called ball-shell structure in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. To trigger the dynamics, the scattering length of the core condensate is periodically modulated in time. We reveal that in the dynamics the interface becomes unstable towards the formation of oscillating patterns. The interface oscillates subharmonically, exhibiting an $m$-fold rotational symmetry that can be controlled by maneuvering the amplitude and the frequency of the modulation. Using Floquet analysis we are able to predict the generated interfacial tension of the mixture and derive a dispersion relation for the natural frequencies of the emergent patterns. A heteronuclear system composed of ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}-{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms can be used for the experimental realization of the phenomenon, yet our results are independent of the specifics of the employed atomic species and of the parameters such as scattering lengths and trap strengths at which the driving is applied.

We investigate the quench dynamics of quasi-one- and two-dimensional dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates of ${}^{164}\mathrm{Dy}$ atoms under the influence of a fast rotating magnetic field. The magnetic field thus controls both the magnitude and sign of the dipolar potential. We account for quantum fluctuations, critical to formation of exotic quantum droplet and supersolid phases in the extended Gross-Pitaevskii formalism, which includes the so-called Lee-Huang-Yang correction. An analytical variational ansatz allows us to obtain the phase diagrams of the superfluid and droplet phases. The crossover from the superfluid to the supersolid phase and to single and droplet arrays is probed with particle number and dipolar interaction. The dipolar strength is tuned by rotating the magnetic field with subsequent effects on phase boundaries. Following interaction quenches across the aforementioned phases, we monitor the dynamical formation of supersolid clusters or droplet lattices. We include losses due to three-body recombination over the crossover regime, where the three-body recombination rate coefficient scales with the fourth power of the scattering length $(a_s)$ or the dipole length $\left(a_{dd}\right)$. For fixed values of the dimensionless parameter, ${\epsilon }_{dd}=a_{dd}/a_s$, tuning the dipolar anisotropy leads to an enhancement of the droplet lifetimes.

We theoretically investigate a supersolid structure taking the form of stacked, disk-shaped superfluid droplets connected via a dilute superfluid, in an antidipolar condensate. A phase diagram is determined for varying the particle number and scattering length, identifying the regions of a regular dipolar superfluid, supersolid stacks, and isolated stacked disk-shaped droplets in an experimentally realizable trapping potential. The collective Bogoliubov excitation spectrum across the superfluid-supersolid phase transition is studied, and the transition point is found to be associated with the breaking of the degeneracy of the two lowest-lying modes. The dynamical generation of the supersolid stacks is also investigated by ramping down the scattering length across the phase transition. Moreover, we have studied the impact of vortex-line penetration on the phase transition. We have found that the presence of a vortex line causes the supersolid region to move towards weaker contact interactions. Our detailed numerical simulations highlight that an antidipolar condensate can create such supersolid stacks within an experimentally reachable parameter regime.

We theoretically investigate elementary excitations of dipolar quantum gases across the superfluid to supersolid phase transition in a toroidal trap. We show how decoupled first sound, second sound, and Higgs modes emerge by following their origin from superfluid modes across the transition. The structure of these excitations reveals the interplay between crystal and superfluid oscillations. Our results unify previous notions of coupled Goldstone and Higgs modes in harmonic traps, allowing us to establish a correspondence between excitations of trapped and infinitely extended supersolids. We propose protocols for selectively probing these sound and amplitude modes, accessible to state-of-the-art experiments. Published by the American Physical Society 2024