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Dark-state phase transition to a dark soliton in a dissipative Bose-Hubbard chain

Robbe Ceulemans1,*, Samuel E. Begg2,3,4,†, Matthew J. Davis5,‡, and Michiel Wouters1,§

  • *Contact author: robbe.ceulemans@uantwerpen.be
  • †Contact author: samuel.begg@utdallas.edu
  • ‡Contact author: mdavis@uq.edu.au
  • §Contact author: michiel.wouters@uantwerpen.be
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033146 – Published 6 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/dv77-31g7

Abstract

We show that a Bose-Hubbard model with local loss exhibits a first-order dark-state phase transition between a dark soliton and a uniform superfluid. Semiclassical simulations and stability analysis reveal that the soliton acts as a many-body dark state, whose suppressed fluctuations modify the transition relative to the comparable phenomenon of optical bistability in Kerr resonators. This mechanism quantitatively captures the bistable phase boundary observed in the experiment of Labouvie et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 235302 (2016)], resolving long-standing discrepancies in previous theoretical modeling. Our results identify a general route by which spatial coherence and engineered loss can generate nonequilibrium phase transitions in ultracold gases.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033146– Published 6 August, 2026
  • Received 14 November 2025
  • Revised 19 March 2026
  • Accepted 2 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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