Exotic Phases of Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupled Dipolar Bosons

We study the ground state phases of ultracold dipolar Bose gases in the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which introduces a degenerate ring-like dispersion minimum for the atoms. Depending on the character of the dipolar interactions and the dimensionality of the system, we find that a number of topological and exotic spatially ordered states emerge, including merons and quantum quasicrystals. We provide an intuitive physical picture for the emergence of these phases, and discuss possible level schemes for atomic dysprosium.