Colloquium: Strongly dipolar molecular Bose-Einstein condensates: From few- to many-body physics

Abstract

Recent advances in molecular cooling have enabled the realization of strongly dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of molecules, and BECs of many different molecular species may become experimentally accessible in the near future. Here the unique properties of such BECs and the new insights they may offer into dipolar quantum fluids and many-body physics are explored. The Colloquium examines which parameter regimes can realistically be achieved using currently available experimental techniques, discusses how to implement these techniques, and outlines which molecular species are particularly well suited to exploring exotic new states of matter. The Colloquium further determines how state-of-the-art beyond-mean-field theories, originally developed for weakly dipolar magnetic gases, can be pushed to their limits and beyond, and what other long-standing questions in the field of dipolar physics may realistically come into reach using molecular systems.