Single Condensate Research Articles

Reduced density matrices and coherence of trapped interacting bosons

The first- and second-order correlation functions of trapped interacting Bose-Einstein condensates are investigated numerically on a many-body level from first principles. Correlations in real space and momentum space are treated. The coherence properties are analyzed. The results are obtained by solving the many-body Schr\odinger equation. It is shown in an example how many-body effects can be induced by the trap geometry. A generic fragmentation scenario of a condensate is considered. The correlation functions are discussed along a pathway from a single condensate to a fragmented condensate. It is shown that strong correlations can arise from the geometry of the trap, even at weak interaction strengths. The natural orbitals and natural geminals of the system are obtained and discussed. It is shown how the fragmentation of the condensate can be understood in terms of its natural geminals. The many-body results are compared to those of mean-field theory. The best solution within mean-field theory is obtained. The limits in which mean-field theories are valid are determined. In these limits the behavior of the correlation functions is explained within an analytical model.

Fermion-mediated interactions in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate

We develop a diagrammatic perturbation treatment to calculate the zero-temperature equation of state of the dilute gas mixture of a single spin component Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and a normal Fermi gas of indistinguishable (single spin) fermion particles. We find that the mean-field description breaks down near the mechanical instability related to the phase separation phenomenon. Our analysis shows that the instability is caused by the competition of the usual short-range and fermion-mediated boson-boson interactions, which result in a boson compressibility that diverges. In the low BEC-density limit, we show that the diagrammatic analysis simplifies, we sum part of the higher-order diagrams, and we discuss the effects of other higher-order contributions.

The a.c. and d.c. Josephson effects in a Bose–Einstein condensate

The alternating- and direct-current (a.c. and d.c.) Josephson effects were first discovered in a system of two superconductors, the macroscopic wavefunctions of which are weakly coupled via a tunnelling barrier. In the a.c. Josephson effect, a constant chemical potential difference (voltage) is applied, which causes an oscillating current to flow through the barrier. Because the frequency is proportional to the chemical potential difference only, the a.c. Josephson effect serves as a voltage standard. In the d.c. Josephson effect, a small constant current is applied, resulting in a constant supercurrent flowing through the barrier. In a sense, the particles do not 'feel' the presence of the tall tunnelling barrier, and flow freely through it with no driving potential. Bose-Einstein condensates should also support Josephson effects; however, while plasma oscillations have been seen in a single Bose-Einstein condensate Josephson junction, the a.c. Josephson effect remains elusive. Here we observe the a.c. and d.c. Josephson effects in a single Bose-Einstein condensate Josephson junction. The d.c. Josephson effect has been observed previously only in superconducting systems; in our study, it is evident when we measure the chemical potential-current relation of the Bose-Einstein condensate Josephson junction. Our system constitutes a trapped-atom interferometer with continuous readout, which operates on the basis of the a.c. Josephson effect. In addition, the measured chemical potential-current relation shows that the device is suitable for use as an analogue of the superconducting quantum interference device, which would sense rotation.

Decoherence Dynamics in Low-Dimensional Cold Atom Interferometers

We report on a study of the dynamics of decoherence of a matter-wave interferometer, consisting of a pair of low-dimensional cold atom condensates at finite temperature. We identify two distinct regimes in the time dependence of the coherence factor of the interferometer: quantum and classical. Explicit analytical results are obtained in both regimes. In particular, in the two-dimensional case in the classical (long time) regime, we find that the dynamics of decoherence is universal, exhibiting a power-law decay with an exponent, proportional to the ratio of the temperature to the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature of a single 2D condensate. In the one-dimensional case in the classical regime we find a universal nonanalytic time dependence of decoherence, which is a consequence of the nonhydrodynamic nature of damping in 1D liquids.

Dynamical instabilities in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice

In this paper we carry out a stability analysis of the Bloch states of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate confined to a 1d optical lattice. We consider two concrete systems: a mixture of two hyperfine states of Rubidium-87 and a mixture of Sodium-23 and Rubidium-87. The former is seen to exhibit similar phenomena to a single component condensate while the latter also suffers an instability to phase separation at small Bloch wave vectors. It is shown that sufficiently deep optical lattices can remove this latter instability, potentially allowing imiscible cold atoms species to be held in intimate contact and transported within an experimental system.

Avoided level-crossing, correlation and entanglement of two-component Bose–Einstein condensates in a double well

We consider a novel system of two-component atomic Bose–Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. Based on the well-known two-mode approximation, we demonstrate that there are obvious avoided level-crossings when both interspecies and intraspecies interactions of two species are increased. The quantum dynamics of the system exhibits revised oscillating behaviours compared with a single component condensate. We also examine the entanglement of two species. Our numerical calculations show that the onset of entanglement can be signalled by a violation of the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality of a second-order cross-correlation function. Consequently, we use Von Neumann entropy to quantify the degree of entanglement.

Splitting and merging an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate at finite temperature

We analyze coherence effects during the splitting of a quasi one-dimensional condensate into two spatially separated ones and their subsequent merging into a single condensate. Our analysis takes into account finite-temperature effects, where phase fluctuations play an important role. We show that, at zero-temperature, the two split condensates can be merged into a single one with a negligible phase difference. By increasing temperature to a finite value below the critical point for condensation ($T_c$), i.e., $0 \le T/T_c < 1$, a considerable enhancement of phase and density fluctuations appears during the process of splitting and merging. Our results show that if the process of splitting and merging is sufficiently adiabatic, the whole process is quite insensitive to phase fluctuations and even at high temperatures, a single condensate can be produced.

Vortex Lattices in Planar Bose-Einstein Condensates with Dipolar Interactions

In this Letter, we investigate the effects of dipole-dipole interactions on the vortex lattices in fast rotating Bose-Einstein condensates. For single planar condensate, we show that the triangular lattice structure will be unfavorable when the s-wave interaction is attractive and exceeds a critical value. It will first change to a square lattice, and then become more and more flat with the increase of s-wave attraction, until the collapse of the condensate. For an array of coupled planar condensates, we discuss how the dipole-dipole interactions between neighboring condensates compete with quantum tunneling processes, which affects the relative displacement of two neighboring vortex lattices and leads to the loss of phase coherence between different condensates.

Sub-shot-noise phase sensitivity with a Bose-Einstein condensate Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Bose Einstein Condensates, with their coherence properties, have attracted wide interest for their possible application to ultra precise interferometry and ultra weak force sensors. Since condensates, unlike photons, are interacting, they may permit the realization of specific quantum states needed as input of an interferometer to approach the Heisenberg limit, the supposed lower bound to precision phase measurements. To this end, we study the sensitivity to external weak perturbations of a representative matter-wave Mach-Zehnder interferometer whose input are two Bose-Einstein condensates created by splitting a single condensate in two parts. The interferometric phase sensitivity depends on the specific quantum state created with the two condensates, and, therefore, on the time scale of the splitting process. We identify three different regimes, characterized by a phase sensitivity $\Delta \theta$ scaling with the total number of condensate particles $N$ as i) the standard quantum limit $\Delta \theta \sim 1/N^{1/2}$, ii) the sub shot-noise $\Delta \theta \sim 1/N^{3/4}$ and the iii) the Heisenberg limit $\Delta \theta \sim 1/N$. However, in a realistic dynamical BEC splitting, the 1/N limit requires a long adiabaticity time scale, which is hardly reachable experimentally. On the other hand, the sub shot-noise sensitivity $\Delta \theta \sim 1/N^{3/4}$ can be reached in a realistic experimental setting. We also show that the $1/N^{3/4}$ scaling is a rigorous upper bound in the limit $N \to \infty$, while keeping constant all different parameters of the bosonic Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

Matter-wave interferometry in a double well on an atom chip

Matter-wave interference experiments enable us to study matter at its most basic, quantum level and form the basis of high-precision sensors for applications such as inertial and gravitational field sensing. Success in both of these pursuits requires the development of atom-optical elements that can manipulate matter waves at the same time as preserving their coherence and phase. Here, we present an integrated interferometer based on a simple, coherent matter-wave beam splitter constructed on an atom chip. Through the use of radio-frequency-induced adiabatic double-well potentials, we demonstrate the splitting of Bose–Einstein condensates into two clouds separated by distances ranging from 3 to 80 μm, enabling access to both tunnelling and isolated regimes. Moreover, by analysing the interference patterns formed by combining two clouds of ultracold atoms originating from a single condensate, we measure the deterministic phase evolution throughout the splitting process. We show that we can control the relative phase between the two fully separated samples and that our beam splitter is phase-preserving.

Interference of Bose-Einstein condensates split with an atom chip

We have used a microfabricated atom chip to split a single Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium atoms into two spatially separated condensates. Dynamical splitting was achieved by deforming the trap along the tightly confining direction into a purely magnetic double-well potential. We observed the matter wave interference pattern formed upon releasing the condensates from the microtraps. The intrinsic features of the quartic potential at the merge point, such as zero trap frequency and extremely high field-sensitivity, caused random variations of the relative phase between the two split condensates. Moreover, the perturbation from the abrupt change of the trapping potential during the splitting was observed to induce vortices.

Stationary states in a system of two linearly coupled 2D NLS equations with nonlinearities of opposite signs

We study, analytically and numerically, the stationary states in the system of two linearly coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations in two spatial dimensions, with the nonlinear interaction coefficients of opposite signs. This system is the two-dimensional analogue of the coupled-mode equations for a condensate in the double-well trap (2004 Phys. Rev. A 69 033609). In contrast to the one-dimensional case, where there are stable bright solitons, in two spatial dimensions the Townes-type solitons of the system are unstable. With the use of a parabolic potential, the ground state of the system can be stabilized. It corresponds to strongly coupled condensates and is stable with respect to collapse. This is in sharp contrast to the one-dimensional case, where the ground state corresponds to weakly coupled condensates and is unstable. Moreover, the total number of atoms of the stable ground state can be much higher than the collapse threshold for a single two-dimensional condensate with a negative s-wave scattering length.

Resonance states in 12C and α-particle condensation

The states with $J^\pi=0^+$, $2^+$, and $4^+$ of $^{12}$C with excitation energies less than about 15 MeV are investigated with the alpha condensate wave function with spatial deformation and by using the method of ACCC (analytic continuation in the coupling constant) which is necessary for a proper treatment of resonance states. The calculated energy and width of the recently observed $2_2^+$ state are found to be well reproduced. The obtained $2_2^+$ wave function has a large overlap with a single condensate wave function of $3\alpha$ gas-like structure. The density distribution is shown to be almost the same as that of the $0_2^+$ state that is regarded as a $3\alpha$ Bose-condensed state, if the energy of the $2_2^+$ state is scaled down to the same value as the one of the $0_2^+$ state. Furthermore, the kinetic energy, nuclear interaction energy, and Coulomb interaction energy of the calculated $2_2^+$ state are shown to be very similar to those of the $0_2^+$ state. We conclude that the $2_2^+$ state has a structure similar to the $0_2^+$ state of Bose-condensate character with a dilute $3\alpha$ gas-like structure. In addition the resonance states, $0_3^+$, $0_4^+$, $4_2^+$, are also discussed.

Putting competing orders in their place near the Mott transition

We describe the localization transition of superfluids on two-dimensional lattices into commensurate Mott insulators with average particle density p/q (p, q relatively prime integers) per lattice site. For bosons on the square lattice, we argue that the superfluid has at least q degenerate species of vortices which transform under a projective representation of the square lattice space group (a PSG). The formation of a single vortex condensate produces the Mott insulator, which is required by the PSG to have density wave order at wavelengths of q/n lattice sites (n integer) along the principle axes; such a second-order transition is forbidden in the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson framework. We also discuss the superfluid-insulator transition in the direct boson representation, and find that an interpretation of the quantum criticality in terms of deconfined fractionalized bosons is only permitted at special values of q for which a permutative representation of the PSG exists. We argue (and demonstrate in detail in a companion paper: L. Balents et al., cond-mat/0409470) that our results apply essentially unchanged to electronic systems with short-range pairing, with the PSG determined by the particle density of Cooper pairs. We also describe the effect of static impurities in the superfluid: the impurities locally break the degeneracy between the q vortex species, and this induces density wave order near each vortex. We suggest that such a theory offers an appealing rationale for the local density of states modulations observed by Hoffman et al. (cond-mat/0201348) in STM studies of the vortex lattice of BSCCO, and allows a unified description of the nucleation of density wave order in zero and finite magnetic fields. We note signatures of our theory that may be tested by future STM experiments.

Symmetry Breaking and Enhanced Condensate Fraction in a Matter-Wave Bright Soliton

An exact diagonalization study reveals that a matter-wave bright soliton and the Goldstone mode are simultaneously created in a quasi-one-dimensional attractive Bose-Einstein condensate by superpositions of quasidegenerate low-lying many-body states. Upon formation of the soliton the maximum eigenvalue of the single-particle density matrix increases dramatically, indicating that a fragmented condensate converts into a single condensate as a consequence of the breaking of translation symmetry.

An effective quasi-one-dimensional description of a spin-1 atomic condensate

Within the mean field theory we extend the effective quasi-1D non-polynomial Schr\"{o}dinger equation (NPSE) approach to the description of a spin-1 atomic condensate in a tight radial confinement geometry for both weak and strong atom-atom interactions. Detailed comparisons with full time dependent 3D numerical simulations show excellent agreement as in the case of a single component scalar condensate, demonstrating our result as an efficient and effective tool for the understanding of spin-1 condensate dynamics observed in several recent experiments.

Cluster structure in nuclei

Two topics of the cluster structure study are discussed. They are (1) α cluster condened states, and (2) superdeformation and molecular states in32S In the first topic, I show that the 3α microscopic cluster model wave functions which were obtained long time ago for the12C second 0+ state are almost completely the same as single 3α condensate model wave functions. The α condensate model wave functions we used for this study are obtained by projecting out good angular momenta from intrinsic a condensate wave functions which are spatially deformed. It is found that the effect of deformation is not large for the present case of the12C O2+ states in the sense that the obtained wave functions contain the spherical condensate components more than 90 %. In the second topic, I show from the AMD + GCM study that the superdeformed excited rotational band in32S is the same as the16O +16O lowest molecular band. I explain that the AMD + GCM calculation gives not only the16O +16O lowest molecular band which is identified as the superdeformed excited band but also the16O +16O second and third lowest molecular bands whose excitation energies are higher than the lowest band by about 10 MeV and 20 MeV, respectively. I point out that the excitation energies of these three lowest bands are almost the same as those of the three lowest bands generated by the so-called “unique optical potential” of the16O +16O scattering.

Cluster structure in nuclei

Two topics of the cluster structure study are discussed. They are (1) α cluster condened states, and (2) superdeformation and molecular states in 32S In the first topic, I show that the 3α microscopic cluster model wave functions which were obtained long time ago for the 12C second 0+ state are almost completely the same as single 3α condensate model wave functions. The α condensate model wave functions we used for this study are obtained by projecting out good angular momenta from intrinsic a condensate wave functions which are spatially deformed. It is found that the effect of deformation is not large for the present case of the 12C O 2 + states in the sense that the obtained wave functions contain the spherical condensate components more than 90 %. In the second topic, I show from the AMD + GCM study that the superdeformed excited rotational band in 32S is the same as the 16O + 16O lowest molecular band. I explain that the AMD + GCM calculation gives not only the 16O + 16O lowest molecular band which is identified as the superdeformed excited band but also the 16O + 16O second and third lowest molecular bands whose excitation energies are higher than the lowest band by about 10 MeV and 20 MeV, respectively. I point out that the excitation energies of these three lowest bands are almost the same as those of the three lowest bands generated by the so-called “unique optical potential” of the 16O + 16O scattering.

Driving force on an Abrikosov vortex

The standard result for the force per unit length on a vortex is derived for an arbitrary configuration of vortices and transport currents in the London limit. The sign reversal between this force, and the Lorentz force on a current in a magnetic field, is shown to be because of the fact that the vortex and the currents driving it are embedded in a single condensate.

Basis-dependent dynamics of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates and analogies with semi-classical laser theory

We present a consistent second order perturbation theory for the lowest-lying condensed modes of very small, weakly-interacting Bose-Einstein condensates in terms of bare particle eigenstates in a harmonic trap. After presenting our general approach, we focus on explicit expressions for a simple three-level system, mainly in order to discuss the analogy of a single condensate occupying two modes of a trap with the semi-classical theory for two-mode photon lasers. A subsequent renormalization of the single-particle energies to include the dressing imposed by mean fields demonstrates clearly the consistency of our treatment with other kinetic approaches.