Fate of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in the Presence of Spin-Orbit Coupling

Intensive theoretical studies have recently predicted that a Bose-Einstein condensate will exhibit a variety of novel properties if spin-orbit coupling is present. However, an unambiguous fact has also been pointed out: Rashba coupling destroys a condensate of noninteracting bosons even in high dimensions. Therefore, a conceptually important question arises as to whether or not a condensate exists in the presence of interaction and a general type of spin-orbit coupling. Here we show that interaction qualitatively changes the ground state of bosons under Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Any infinitesimal repulsion forces bosons either to condense at one or two momentum states or to form a superfragmented state that is a superposition of infinite numbers of fragmented condensates. The superfragmented state is unstable against the anisotropy of spin-orbit coupling in systems with large numbers of particles, leading to the revival of a condensate in current experiments.

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