Networks of coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Photon Bose-Einstein condensates (pBECs) are a suitable platform both for the study of fundamental phenomena of many-body physics and for implementation of a next-generation analog simulators for solving optimization problems.

In our physical system, the network of coupled pBECs in a microcavity setup is created by individually laser pumping trap sites connected via waveguides to their nearest neighbours. The potential landscape of the latter is created by permanent nanostructuring of one of the microcavity mirrors [1]. The same phenomena can be employed to control the interaction of the condensates by temporarily altering the landscape of the connecting waveguides.

This system is expected to exhibit phase vortices and a Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless phase transition, which makes it interesting from fundamental point of view. Finding the ground state of a network of pBECs is an NP-complete problem, making this platform a promising candidate for an analog optimization problem solver.

We report on our preliminary results on the creation of coherent networks of pBECs, of spin-frustrated system of pBECs, and dynamic control of intra cavity potential landscape.