Self-trapping of excitations: Two-dimensional quasiparticle solitons in an extended Bose-Hubbard dimer array

Abstract

Considering a two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard spinor lattice with weak nearest neighbour interactions and no particle transfer between sites, we theoretically study the transport of energy from one initially excited dimer, to the rest of the lattice. Beyond a critical interaction strength, low energy on-site excitations are quickly dispersed throughout the array, while stronger excitations are self trapped, resulting in localized energy breathers and solitons. These structures are quasiparticle analogues to the discrete 2D solitons in photonic lattices. Full many-body simulations additionally demonstrate the localization of one-particle entropy.