Comunicazione
Superfluids and supersolids in a ring.
Preti N., Antolini N., Biagioni G., Dardier T., Fioretti A., Gabbanini C., Tanzi L., Modugno G.
In the mid '90s the experimental realization of BEC in ultracold atoms paved the way to a series of ground-breaking discoveries. Among them, an important recent achievement has been the observation of a new phase of matter, the supersolid, about 50 years after its first theoretical proposals. Previous results in the supersolid community proved that this newly discovered phase of matter indeed possesses the properties of both a superfluid, showing coherence and a reduced moment of inertia when rotated, and those of a solid, featuring a spontaneous density modulation. We will report on an ongoing experiment regarding the superfluid nature of the supersolid, done in collaboration with the BEC center in Trento. Our aim is to trap the supersolid in an optical potential shaped as a ring, made through the use of a digital micromirror device. By doing so we will be able to study its rotation properties in the same configuration used in the past for standard superfluids and superconductors. Moving from the supersolid to a standard superfluid through a reversible quantum phase transition, we will be able to test for the first time the seminal theory by the Nobel laureate A. Leggett.