Thermal destabilization of self-bound ultradilute quantum droplets

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the temperature effect in a Bose–Bose mixture with attractive inter-species interactions, in the regime where a self-bound ultradilute quantum droplet forms due to the subtle balance between the attractive mean-field force and the repulsive force provided by Lee–Huang–Yang quantum fluctuations. We find that in contrast to quantum fluctuations, thermal fluctuations destabilize the droplet state and completely destroy it above a threshold temperature. We show that the threshold temperature is determined by the intra-species interaction energy. For a three-dimensional Bose–Bose mixture, the threshold temperature is less than one-tenth of the Bose–Einstein condensation temperature under the typical experimental conditions. With increasing temperature, the droplet’s equilibrium density gradually decreases and can be reduced by several tens of percent upon reaching the threshold temperature. We also consider a one-dimensional quantum droplet and find a similar destabilization effect due to thermal fluctuations. The threshold temperature in one dimension is roughly set by the binding energy of the inter-species dimer. The pronounced thermal instability of a self-bound quantum droplet predicted in our work could be examined in future experiments, by measuring the temperature dependence of its central density and observing its sudden disappearance at the threshold temperature.