Fractal Quasicondensation in One Dimension

Abstract

We unveil a novel mechanism for quasicondensation of hard-core bosons in the presence of quasiperiodicity-induced multifractal single-particle states. The new critical state, here dubbed fractal quasicondensate, is characterized by natural orbitals with multifractal properties and by an occupancy of the lowest natural orbital, λ0 ~ Lγ, which grows with system size but with a nonuniversal scaling exponent, γ < 1/2. In contrast to fractal quasicondensates obtained when the chemical potential lies in a region of multifractal single-particle states, placing the chemical potential in regions of localized or delocalized states yields, respectively, no condensation or the usual 1D quasicondensation with γ = 1/2. Our findings are established by studying one-dimensional hardcore bosons subjected to various quasiperiodic potentials, including the well-known Aubry-Andre model, employing a mapping to non-interacting fermionics that allows for numerically exact results. We discuss how to test our findings in state-of-the-art ultracold atom experiments.