Unconventional Bose-Einstein Condensations Beyond the “No-node” Theorem

Feynman’s “no-node” theorem states that the conventional many-body ground-state wavefunctions of bosons in the coordinate representation is positive-definite. This implies that time-reversal symmetry cannot be spontaneously broken. In this article, we review our progress in studying a class of new states of unconventional Bose-Einstein condensations beyond this paradigm. These states can either be the long-lived metalstable states of ultra-cold bosons in high orbital bands in optical lattices as a result of the “orbital-Hund’s rule” interaction, or the ground states of spinful bosons with spinorbit coupling linearly dependent on momentum. In both cases, Feynman’s argument does not apply. The resultant many-body wavefunctions are complex-valued and thus break time-reversal symmetry spontaneously. Exotic phenomena in these states include the Bose-Einstein condensation at non-zero momentum, the ordering of orbital angular momentum moments, the half-quantum vortex, and the spin texture of skyrmions.