Annular Bose metal from interacting Rashba Bosons

There has been much recent interest in realizing ultracold atoms with spin-orbit coupling. Here we study bosons in 2$+$1 dimensions with Rashba spin-orbit interactions. The dispersion minimum occurs along a circle in momentum space that frustrates Bose condensation and raises the possibility of a novel phase. Here we propose a`Bose metal' ground state, for which we construct a wavefunction and evaluate its properties using Variational Monte Carlo calculations. We show that this is an uncondensed state with a hidden Fermi surface and a ring like momentum distribution function -- hence the name annular Bose metal. We also discuss the competition with an ordinary Bose condensate and related states.