** This is a weekly seminar with research talks from local condensed matter theory students and postdocs, aimed at a broad quantum audience. Everyone is welcome! If you're interested in presenting at a future seminar, please send a message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. ** Â Time:Â Thursday, March 12 - 4:00-5:00pm Location:Â Â ATL 3100A and Virtual Via Zoom:Â https://umd.zoom.us/j/94978519761 Â Speaker:Â Stuart Yi-Thomas, UMD Title:Â Ising criticality can drive vortex deconfinement in a spin-orbit coupled Bose gas Abstract:Â Spin-orbit coupling in Bose gases is known to lead to an Ising-symmetry-broken phase where the bosons condense at one of two nonzero momenta. In two dimensions, the finite momentum of the order parameter allows vortex-antivortex pairs that are typically bound in the superfluid phase to freely separate along Ising domain walls. This non-trivial interaction between the superfluid and the Ising order suggests that the critical fluctuations near an Ising transition could drive a deconfinement transition of the superfluid. I will present numerical evidence of this phenomenon using a Monte Carlo simulation that shows the disappearance of superfluid stiffness near an Ising transition. Additionally, I find numerical evidence that the Ising phase transition becomes first order and justify this claim with a variational approximation.