Phase transitions of S=1 spinor condensates in an optical lattice

Abstract

We study the phase diagram of spin-one polar condensates in a two-dimensional optical lattice with magnetic anisotropy. We show that the topological binding of vorticity to nematic disclinations allows for a rich variety of phase transitions. These include Kosterlitz-Thouless-like transitions with a superfluid stiffness jump that can be experimentally tuned to take a continuous set of values, and a cascaded Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, characterized by two divergent length scales. For higher integer spin bosons S, the thermal phase transition out of the planar polar phase is strongly affected by the parity of S. © 2009 The American Physical Society.