Zero-momentum coupling induced transitions of ground states in Rashba spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate the transitions of ground states induced by zero momentum (ZM) coupling in pseudospin-1/2 Rashba spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a harmonic trap. In a weak harmonic trap, the condensate presents a plane wave (PW) state, a stripe state or a spin polarized ZM state, and the particle distribution of the stripe state is weighted equally at two points in the momentum space without ZM coupling. The presence of ZM coupling induces an imbalanced particle distribution in the momentum space, and leads to the decrease of the amplitude of the stripe state. When its strength exceeds a critical value, the system experiences the transition from stripe phase to PW phase. The boundary of these two phases is shifted and a new phase diagram spanned by the ZM coupling and the interatomic interactions is obtained. The presence of ZM coupling can also achieve the transition from ZM phase to PW phase. In a strong harmonic trap, the condensate exhibits a vortex lattice state without ZM coupling. For the positive effective Rabi frequency of ZM coupling, the condensate is driven from a vortex lattice state to a vortex-free lattice state and finally to a PW state with the increase of coupling strength. In addition, for the negative effective Rabi frequency, the condensate is driven from a vortex lattice state to a stripe state, and finally to a PW state. The stripe state found in the strong harmonic trap is different from that in previous works because of its nonzero superfluid velocity along the stripes. We also discuss the influences of the ZM coupling on the spin textures, and indicate that the spin textures are squeezed transversely by the ZM coupling.