Thermodynamic properties of ideal Bose gas trapped in different external power-law potentials under generalized uncertainty principle**Project supported by the Major Innovation Projects for Building First-class Universities in China’s Western Region (Grant No. ZKZD2017006); Natural science foundation project of ningxia education department (Grant No. NGY0017054).

Abstract

Significant evidence is available to support the quantum effects of gravity that lead to the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) and the minimum observable length. Usually in quantum mechanics, statistical physics does not take gravity into account. Thermodynamic properties of ideal Bose gases in different external power-law potentials are studied under the GUP with a statistical physical method. Critical temperature, internal energy, heat capacity, entropy, particle number of ground state and excited state are calculated analytically to ideal Bose gases in the external potentials under the GUP. Below the critical temperature, taking the rubidium and sodium atoms, ideal Bose gases whose particle densities are under standard and experimental conditions, respectively, as examples, the relations of internal energy, heat capacity and entropy with temperature are analyzed numerically. Theoretical and numerical calculations show that: (1) the GUP leads to an increase in the critical temperature. (2) When the temperature is lower than the critical temperature and slightly higher than 0 K, the GUP’s amendments to internal energy, heat capacity and entropy etc are positive. As the temperature increases to a certain value, these amendments become negative. (3) The external potentials can increase or decrease the influence of the GUP on thermodynamic properties. When ε = 1 J, ε is the quantity that reflects the external potential intensity, and atomic density n = 2.687 × 1025 m−3, the GUP’s amendments to the internal energy, heat capacity and entropy of the rubidium atoms ideal Bose gas first decrease and then increase with the increase of X (where X ≡ Σi1/ti is sum of the reciprocal of the exponents of the power function). In three-dimensional harmonic potential, the relative correction term of the GUP is 26 orders of magnitude larger than that of a free-particle system in a fixed container. (4) When ε ≈10−31 J and n ≈ 1020 m−3 (which are the experimental data when BEC was first verified by sodium atomic gas), the influence of the GUP can be completely ignored. (5) Under certain conditions, GUP may become the dominant factor governing the thermodynamic properties of the system.