Many-Body State and Dynamic Behaviour of the Pair-Correlation Function of a Small Bose–Einstein Condensate Confined in a Ring Potential

Abstract

We investigate the many-body state and the static and the dynamic behaviour of the pair-correlation function of a Bose–Einstein condensate with a finite atom number, which is confined in a quasi-one-dimensional toroidal/annular potential, both for repulsive, and for attractive interactions. We link the dynamic pair-correlation function that we evaluate with the problem of quantum time crystals. For weak repulsive interatomic interactions and a finite number of atoms the pair-correlation function shows a periodic temporal behaviour, which disappears in the limit of a large atom number, in agreement with general arguments. Finally we provide some insight into older results of attractive interactions, where the time-crystalline behaviour exists only in the limit of a large atom number.