Periodic quenches across the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition

Abstract

The quenched dynamics of an ultracold homogeneous atomic two-dimensional Bose gas subjected to periodic quenches across the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition are discussed. Specifically, we address the effect of periodic cycling of the effective atomic interaction strength between a thermal disordered state above and a highly ordered state below the critical BKT interaction strength, by means of numerical simulations of the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Probing the emerging dynamics as a function of the frequency of sinusoidal driving from low to high frequencies reveals diverse dynamical features, including phase-lagged quasiadiabatic reversible condensate formation, resonant excitation consistent with an intrinsic system relaxation timescale, and the gradual establishment of dynamically recurring or time-averaged nonequilibrium states with enhanced coherence, which are neither condensed nor thermal. Our study paves the way for experimental observation of such driven nonequilibrium ultracold superfluid states.