Sarah Embacher

Our paper “Synchronization in rotating supersolids” is now published in Nature Physics here!

Read the news article by Nature Physics here and the news article by the University of Innsbruck here.

Synchronization is a widespread phenomenon in natural and engineered systems, governing the emergence of collective dynamics in different domains including biology and classical and quantum physics. Supersolids—quantum phases that combine crystalline order and superfluidity—offer a platform to explore synchronization in systems with coexisting broken symmetries.

In this work, we investigate the dynamics of a dipolar supersolid subjected to external rotation. We show that, above a critical driving frequency, the crystal revolution undergoes a sudden synchronization with the rotating field seeded by the nucleation of quantized vortices, hallmark of superfluidity.

This transition reflects the interplay between the solid-like and superfluid responses of the system. By comparing simulations of the extended Gross–Pitaevskii equation with experimental observations, we demonstrate that synchronization can serve as a dynamical indicator for vortex nucleation. This approach provides a complementary method to determine the critical rotation frequency for vortex formation in supersolids.