Rotons in gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates irradiated by a laser

A gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) irradiated by a far off-resonance laser has long-range interatomic correlations caused by laser-induced dipole-dipole interactions. These correlations, which are tunable via the laser intensity and frequency, can produce a `roton’ minimum in the excitation spectrum–behavior reminiscent of the strongly correlated superfluid liquid helium II.