Degenerate Gas Research Articles

MHD waves with Landau diamagnetic pressure and Pauli paramagnetizim in degenerate plasmas

Magnetosonic waves are studied in the presence of degenerate pressure due to Landau diamagnetic levels and Pauli spin magnetization with strong magnetic field in quantum degenerate electron- ion plasma. A linear dispersion relation of low frequency propagation wave in the direction of magnetic field is derived that strongly depends on the magnetic field while in classical regime this field has no such a role. In the presence of quantization of orbital motion and spin magnetization, new propagation modes of quantum plasmas are also explored. It is noted that quantum acoustic velocity and spin magnetization energy affect the Alfven mode propagation. The quantum effects are incorporated through the Bohm potential, Landau pressure due to Landau quantization of magnetic field and magnetization energy due to spin effect. The current model in the context of Landau diamagnetic pressure along with spin magnetization is sufficient for studying the astrophysical plasma environment existing in the compact systems e.g., white dwarfs and neutron stars.

Cold Atoms Beyond Atomic Physics

In the last 25 years, much progress has been made producing and controlling Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and degenerate Fermi gases. The advances in trapping, cooling and tuning the interparticle interactions in these cold atom systems lead to an unprecedented amount of control that one can exert over them. This work aims to show that knowledge acquired studying cold atom systems can be applied to other fields that share similarities and analogies with them, provided that the differences are also known and taken into account. We focus on two specific fields, nuclear physics and statistical optics. The nuclear physics discussion occurs with the BCS-BEC crossover in mind, in which we compare cold Fermi gases with nuclear and neutron matter and nuclei. We connect BECs and atom lasers through both systems' matter-wave character for the analogy with statistical optics. Finally, we present some challenges that, if solved, would increase our understanding of cold atom systems and, thus, the related areas.

Mixed state dynamics with non-local interactions

The evolution of degenerate matter out of equilibrium is a topic of interest in fields such as condensed matter, nuclear and atomic physics, and increasingly cosmology, including inflaton physics prior to reheating. This work extends the recent paper on the super-de Broglie dynamics of pure condensates to the dynamics of mixed states. It is found that the two-body correlation function plays an increasingly dynamical role in these systems, driving the development of condensates and distributed phases alike. Examples of distribution and correlation evolution are presented, including instances of collapse, bound and unbound states, and phonons in the bulk. Potential applications are also discussed.

Oblique waveguide instability in quantum plasmas

The oblique wave instability is studied extensively in cylindrical bounded quantum plasmas. This study emphasizes on role of quantum features of a plasma system like Fermi degenerate pressure, exchange-correlation potential and Bohm potential as well as the radius of cylindrical geometry on the instability. The growth rate is studied for two cases depending upon the ion gyro time scales. It is found that the growth rate for both cases decreases in a plasma column with the characteristics of wave vector and the parameters like plasma number density, poles of Bessel function and waveguide radius. On increasing these arguments, decreasing of the growth rates respond differently. Numerical analysis of this study is presented on the basis of astrophysical plasma parameters, however, it may be equally useful in the laboratory and discharge plasma technology for some typical set of parameters. Despite the fact of numerous possible applications in technology, the motivation may be extended to the fundamental aspects.

Coherent splitting of two-dimensional Bose gases in magnetic potentials

Investigating out-of-equilibrium dynamics with two-dimensional (2D) systems is of widespread theoretical interest, as these systems are strongly influenced by fluctuations and there exists a superfluid phase transition at a finite temperature. In this work, we realise matter-wave interference for degenerate Bose gases, including the first demonstration of coherent splitting of 2D Bose gases using magnetic trapping potentials. We improve the fringe contrast by imaging only a thin slice of the expanded atom clouds, which will be necessary for subsequent studies on the relaxation of the gas following a quantum quench.

Oblique collision of ion acoustic solitons in a relativistic degenerate plasma

The interaction (oblique collision) of two ion acoustic solitons (IASs) in a magnetized relativistic degenerate plasma with relativistic degenerate electrons and non-degenerate cold ions is studied. The extended Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo (PLK) method is used to obtain two Korteweg deVries (KdV) wave equations that describe the interacting IASs, then the phase shifts due to interaction are calculated. We studied influence of the fluid number density on the interaction process, interacting solitons phase shifts and also phase velocities. The introduced model is valid for astrophysical objects with high density matter such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, degenerate electrons gas in metals and laboratory degenerate plasma. An inverse proportionality between the phase shifts, phase velocity and the equilibrium electron fluid number density n_{eo} was established in the range 10^{35},{text {m}}^{-3}>n_{eo}>10^{38},{text {m}}^{-3}. We found that the soliton waves get sharper (narrower) and higher with increasing the electrons fluid number density n_{eo}, and hence less spacial occupying. The phase shifts and the phase velocity remain approximately unchanged in the range of 10^{35},{text {m}}^{-3}<n_{eo}<10^{38},{text {m}}^{-3}. The impact of the obliqueness angle theta on the soliton interaction process is also studied.

Quasiparticle Lifetime of the Repulsive Fermi Polaron.

We investigate the metastable repulsive branch of a mobile impurity coupled to a degenerate Fermi gas via short-range interactions. We show that the quasiparticle lifetime of this repulsive Fermi polaron can be experimentally probed by driving Rabi oscillations between weakly and strongly interacting impurity states. Using a time-dependent variational approach, we find that we can accurately model the impurity Rabi oscillations that were recently measured for repulsive Fermi polarons in both two and three dimensions. Crucially, our theoretical description does not include relaxation processes to the lower-lying attractive branch. Thus, the theory-experiment agreement demonstrates that the quasiparticle lifetime is dominated by many-body dephasing within the upper repulsive branch rather than by relaxation from the upper branch itself. Our findings shed light on recent experimental observations of persistent repulsive correlations, and have important consequences for the nature and stability of the strongly repulsive Fermi gas.

High-frequency surface waves in quantum plasmas with electrons relativistic degenerate and exchange-correlation effects

The propagation characteristics of high-frequency surface waves are studied in spin-1/2 quantum plasmas by considering the electron relativistic degenerate and exchange-correlation effects. Using the quantum fluid equations of magnetoplasmas in the presence of the quantum Bohm potential, spin magnetization energy, relativistic degenerate pressure, and exchange-correlation effects, a generalized dispersion relation is derived. The analytical and numerical results show that the relativistic degenerate and exchange-correlation effects significantly modify the propagation properties of high-frequency surface waves. It is found that under the influence of exchange-correlation effects, the frequency spectrum of high-frequency surface waves will be down-shifted. It is also indicated that the dispersion curve shifts up with the increase of relativistic gamma factor. Furthermore, the phase speed of the high-frequency surface waves increases with increasing electron number density. The current research is helpful to understand the propagation of the high-frequency surface waves in quantum plasmas, such as those in dense astrophysical environment.

Double-degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture of strontium and lithium

We report on the attainment of a degenerate Fermi gas of $\rm^{6}Li$ in contact with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of $^{84}$Sr. A degeneracy of $T/T_F=0.33(3)$ is observed with $1.6\times10^5$ $^{6}$Li atoms in the two lowest energy hyperfine states together with an almost pure BEC of $3.1\times10^5$ $^{84}$Sr atoms. The elastic s-wave scattering length between $^6$Li and $^{84}$Sr is estimated to be $|a_{\rm^{6}Li-\rm^{84}Sr}|=(7.1_{-1.7}^{+2.6})a_0$ ($a_0$ being the Bohr radius) from measured interspecies thermalization rates in an optical dipole trap.

Effective Statistical Fringe Removal Algorithm for High-Sensitivity Imaging of Ultracold Atoms

High-sensitivity imaging of ultracold atoms is often challenging when interference patterns are imprinted on the imaging light. Such image noises result in low signal-to-noise ratio and limit the capability to extract subtle physical quantities. Here we demonstrate an advanced fringe removal algorithm for absorption imaging of ultracold atoms, which efficiently suppresses unwanted fringe patterns using a small number of sample images without taking additional reference images. The protocol is based on an image decomposition and projection method with an extended image basis. We apply this scheme to raw absorption images of degenerate Fermi gases for the measurement of atomic density fluctuations and temperatures. The quantitative analysis shows that image noises can be efficiently removed with only tens of reference images, which manifests the efficiency of our protocol. Our algorithm would be of particular interest for the quantum emulation experiments in which several physical parameters need to be scanned within a limited time duration.

Weyl's problem: A computational approach

The distribution of eigenvalues of the wave equation in a bounded domain is known as Weyl's problem. We describe several computational projects related to the cumulative state number, defined as the number of states having wavenumber up to a maximum value. This quantity and its derivative, the density of states, have important applications in nuclear physics, degenerate Fermi gases, blackbody radiation, Bose–Einstein condensation, and the Casimir effect. Weyl's theorem states that, in the limit of large wavenumbers, the cumulative state number depends only on the volume of the bounding domain and not on its shape. Corrections to this behavior are well known and depend on the surface area of the bounding domain, its curvature, and other features. We describe several projects that allow readers to investigate this dependence for three bounding domains—a rectangular box, a sphere, and a circular cylinder. Quasi-one- and two-dimensional systems can be analyzed by considering various limits. The projects have applications in statistical mechanics, but can also be integrated into quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, or computational physics courses.

Degenerate fermion dark matter from a broken U(1)B−L gauge symmetry

The extension of the Standard model by assuming $U(1)_{\rm B-L}$ gauge symmetry is very well-motivated since it naturally explains the presence of heavy right-handed neutrinos required to account for the small active neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism and thermal leptogenesis. Traditionally, we introduce three right handed neutrinos to cancel the $[U(1)_{\rm B-L}]^3$ anomaly. However, it suffices to introduce two heavy right-handed neutrinos for these purposes and therefore we can replace one right-handed neutrino by new chiral fermions to cancel the $U(1)_{\rm B-L}$ gauge anomaly. Then, one of the chiral fermions can naturally play a role of a dark matter candidate. In this paper, we demonstrate how this framework produces a dark matter candidate which can address the so-called "core-cusp problem". As one of the small scale problems that $\Lambda$CDM paradigm encounters, it may imply an important clue for a nature of dark matter. One of resolutions among many is hypothesizing that sub-keV fermion dark matter halos in dwarf spheroidal galaxies are in (quasi) degenerate configuration. We show how the degenerate sub-keV fermion dark matter candidate can be non-thermally originated in our model and thus can be consistent with Lyman-$\alpha$ forest observation. Thereby, the small neutrino mass, baryon asymmetry, and the sub-keV dark matter become consequences of the broken B-L gauge symmetry.

Two-fluid simulations of the magnetic field evolution in neutron star cores in the weak-coupling regime

ABSTRACT In a previous paper, we reported simulations of the evolution of the magnetic field in neutron star (NS) cores through ambipolar diffusion, taking the neutrons as a motionless uniform background. However, in real NSs, neutrons are free to move, and a strong composition gradient leads to stable stratification (stability against convective motions) both of which might impact on the time-scales of evolution. Here, we address these issues by providing the first long-term two-fluid simulations of the evolution of an axially symmetric magnetic field in a neutron star core composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons with density and composition gradients. Again, we find that the magnetic field evolves towards barotropic ‘Grad–Shafranov equillibria’, in which the magnetic force is balanced by the degeneracy pressure gradient and gravitational force of the charged particles. However, the evolution is found to be faster than in the case of motionless neutrons, as the movement of charged particles (which are coupled to the magnetic field, but are also limited by the collisional drag forces exerted by neutrons) is less constrained, since neutrons are now allowed to move. The possible impact of non-axisymmetric instabilities on these equilibria, as well as beta decays, proton superconductivity, and neutron superfluidity, are left for future work.

InSitu Thermometry of a Cold Fermi Gas via Dephasing Impurities.

The precise measurement of low temperatures is a challenging, important, and fundamental task for quantum science. In particular, insitu thermometry is highly desirable for cold atomic systems due to their potential for quantum simulation. Here, we demonstrate that the temperature of a noninteracting Fermi gas can be accurately inferred from the nonequilibrium dynamics of impurities immersed within it, using an interferometric protocol and established experimental methods. Adopting tools from the theory of quantum parameter estimation, we show that our proposed scheme achieves optimal precision in the relevant temperature regime for degenerate Fermi gases in current experiments. We also discover an intriguing trade-off between measurement time and thermometric precision that is controlled by the impurity-gas coupling, with weak coupling leading to the greatest sensitivities. This is explained as a consequence of the slow decoherence associated with the onset of the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe, which dominates the gas dynamics following its local interaction with the immersed impurity.

Emergent Fermi surface in a many-body non-Hermitian fermionic chain

Quantum degeneracy pressure (QDP) underscores the stability of matter and is arguably the most ubiquitous many-body effect. The associated Fermi surface (FS) has broad implications for physical phenomena, ranging from electromagnetic responses to entanglement entropy (EE) area law violations. Given recent fruitful studies in condensed-matter physics under effectively non-Hermitian descriptions, it becomes urgent to study how QDP and many-body interactions interplay with non-Hermitian effects. Through a prototypical critical 1D fermionic lattice with asymmetric gain/loss, a real space FS is shown to naturally emerge, in addition to any existing momentum space FS. We also carefully characterize such real space FS with the EE, via a renormalized temperature that encapsulates the interplay of thermal excitations and non-Hermiticity. Nearest neighbor repulsion is also found to induce competing charge density wave (CDW) that may erode the real space FS. The underlying physics surrounding criticality and localization is further analyzed with complex flux spectral flows. Our findings can be experimentally demonstrated with ultracold fermions in a suitably designed optical lattice.

A measurement of the equation of state of carbon envelopes of white dwarfs.

White dwarfs represent the final state of evolution for most stars1-3. Certain classes of white dwarfs pulsate4,5, leading to observable brightness variations, and analysis of these variationswith theoretical stellar models probes their internal structure. Modelling of these pulsating stars provides stringent tests of white dwarf models and a detailed picture of the outcome of the late stages of stellar evolution6. However, the high-energy-density states thatexist in white dwarfs are extremely difficult to reach and to measure in the laboratory, so theoretical predictions are largely untested at these conditions. Here we report measurements of the relationship between pressure and density along the principal shock Hugoniot (equations describing the state of the sample material before and after the passage of the shock derived from conservation laws) of hydrocarbon to within five per cent. The observed maximum compressibility is consistent with theoretical models that include detailed electronic structure. This is relevant for the equation of state of matter at pressures ranging from 100 million to 450 million atmospheres, where the understanding of white dwarf physics is sensitive to the equation of state and where models differ considerably. The measurements test these equation-of-state relations thatare used in themodelling of white dwarfs and inertial confinement fusion experiments7,8, and we predict an increase in compressibility due to ionization of the inner-core orbitals of carbon. We also find that a detailed treatment of the electronic structure and the electron degeneracy pressure is required to capture the measured shape of the pressure-density evolution for hydrocarbon before peak compression. Our results illuminate the equation of state of the white dwarf envelope (the region surroundingthe stellar core that contains partially ionized and partially degenerate non-ideal plasmas), which is aweak link in the constitutivephysicsinforming the structure and evolution of white dwarf stars9.

Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson model for an ultracold plasma: Density waves and solitons

We introduce 1D and 2D models of a degenerate bosonic gas composed of ions with positive and negative charges (cations and anions). The system may exist in the mean-field condensate state, enabling the competition of the Coulomb coupling, contact repulsion, and kinetic energy of the particles, provided that their effective mass is reduced by means of a lattice potential. The model combines the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equations for the two-component wave function of the cations and anions, coupled to the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential mediating the Coulomb coupling. The contact interaction in the GP system can be derived, in the Thomas-Fermi approximation, from a system of three GP equations, which includes the wave function of heavy neutral atoms. In the system with fully repulsive contact interactions, we construct stable spatially periodic patterns (density waves, DWs). The transition to DWs is identified by analysis of the modulational instability of a uniformly mixed neutral state. The DW pattern, which represents the system's ground state (GS), is predicted by a variational approximation. In 2D, a stable pattern is produced too, with a quasi-1D shape. The 1D system with contact self-attraction in each component produces bright solitons of three types: neutral ones, with fully mixed components; dipoles, with the components separated by the inter-species contact repulsion; and quadrupoles, with a layer of one component sandwiched between side lobes formed by the other. The transition from the neutral solitons to dipoles is accurately modeled analytically. A chart of the GSs of the different types (neutral solitons, dipoles, or quadrupoles) is produced. Different soliton species do not coexist as stable states. Collisions between traveling solitons are elastic for dipole-dipole pairs, while dipole-antidipole ones merge into stable quadrupoles via multiple collisions.

Anomalies in isothermal compressibility and exponent of pressure in spin-orbit-coupled degenerate Fermi gases

The spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in degenerate Fermi gases can fundamentally change the fate of $s$-wave superfluids. Here we report the anomalous isothermal compressibility ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{T}$ in the degenerate Fermi gases with both SOC and Zeeman field. Starting from the Gibbs-Duhem equation, we show that ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{T}$ comes from both the explicit contribution of chemical potential and the implicit contribution of the order parameter. In the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) limit, ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{T}$ is determined by the explicit compressibility, which is proportional to the density of states at the Fermi surface; while in the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) regime it is determined by the implicit compressibility, which is uniquely given by the scattering length. Between these two limits, we find a pronouncedly enhanced compressibility in the gapless Weyl phase regime, which is attributed to a remanent effect of the instability of degenerate Fermi gases towards phase separation. This enhanced compressibility also leads to an anomaly in the exponent of pressure. A connection between this exponent and the polytropic index is established. These predictions can be measured from the anomaly in sound velocity, density fluctuation, and collective vibration frequencies.

Three-dimensional heat transfer effects in external layers of a magnetized neutron star

ABSTRACT Determination of a magnetic field structure on a neutron star (NS) surface is an important problem of a modern astrophysics. In a presence of strong magnetic fields, a thermal conductivity of a degenerate matter is anisotropic. In this paper, we present 3D anisotropic heat transfer simulations in outer layers of magnetized NSs, and construct synthetic thermal light curves. We have used a different from previous works tensorial thermal conductivity coefficient of electrons, derived from the analytical solution of the Boltzmann equation by the Chapman–Enskog method. We have obtained an NS surface temperature distribution in presence of dipole-plus-quadrupole magnetic fields. We consider a case, in which magnetic axes of a dipole and quadrupole components of the magnetic field are not aligned. To examine observational manifestations of such fields, we have generated thermal light curves for the obtained temperature distributions using a composite blackbody model. It is shown that the simplest (only zero-order spherical function in quadrupole component) non-coaxial dipole-plus-quadrupole magnetic field distribution can significantly affect the thermal light curves, making pulse profiles non-symmetric and amplifying pulsations in comparison to the pure-dipolar field.

Strong-coupling Bose polarons in one dimension: Condensate deformation and modified Bogoliubov phonons

We discuss the interaction of a quantum impurity with a one-dimensional degenerate Bose gas forming a Bose-polaron. In three spatial dimensions the quasiparticle is typically well described by the extended Fr\"ohlich model, in full analogy with the solid-state counterpart. This description, which assumes an undepleted condensate, fails however in 1D, where the backaction of the impurity on the condensate leads to a self-bound mean-field polaron for arbitrarily weak impurity-boson interactions. We present a model that takes into account this backaction and describes the impurity-condensate interaction as coupling to phonon-like excitations of a deformed condensate. A comparison of polaron energies and masses to diffusion quantum Monte-Carlo simulations shows very good agreement already on the level of analytical mean-field solutions and is further improved when taking into account quantum fluctuations.