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Résumé |
The elusive supersolid phase, a state in which a crystalline structure coexists
with superfluidity (i.e., frictionless and dissipationless material flow), was
initially proposed as the ground state of solid Helium-4. This conjecture has
since found theoretical, and later experimental, disproval; however,
supersolidity has continued to be the center of intensive theoretical and
experimental investigations, especially after its recent experimental
realization in experiments with cold dipolar atoms.
This introductory talk will center on a part of my work on bosonic systems of
interest for experiments with cold atoms, whose ground state is characterized
by the formation of clusters of particles. These self-arrange despite the
repulsive nature of the interparticle interactions, and are associated to a
wide variety of both (essentially) classical and quantum many-body states of
interest. The main result I am going to discuss in this context is the
appearance, in a selected parameter regime, of a novel type of phase
transition, induced by the interparticle interaction strength, between two
different kinds of supersolid states displaying radically different physical
properties. |
