Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate Research Articles

Goldstone-mode instability leading to fragmentation in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We apply the number-conserving Bogoliubov theory to spinor Bose-Einstein condensates and show that the Goldstone magnon leads instability leading to fragmentation. Unlike the dynamical instability, where modes with complex eigenfrequencies grow exponentially, here the zero-energy mode exhibits algebraic growth. We also point out that a small fraction of thermally excited atoms enhances the fragmentation dynamics.

Coherence and Entanglement in Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate

We propose a scheme to generate and detect quantum coherence and quantum entanglement in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate with the help of spin squeezing parameter and quantum Fisher information. It is shown that quantum coherence and quantum entanglement are independent of the Rabi frequency and the better entanglement can be achieved by increasing the number of atoms.

Quantum turbulence by vortex stirring in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We introduce a mechanism to develop a turbulent flow in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, consisting in the stirring of a single line vortex by means of an external magnetic field. We find that density and velocity fluctuations have white-noise power spectra at large frequencies and that the energy spectrum obeys Kolmogorov 5/3 law in the turbulent region. As the stirring is turned off, the flow decays to an agitated nonequilibrium state that shows an energy bottleneck crossover at small length scales. We demonstrate our findings by numerically solving two-state spinor coupled three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equations. We suggest that this mechanism may be experimentally implemented in spinor ultracold gases confined by optical traps.

Topological influence and backaction between topological excitations

Topological objects can influence each other if the underlying homotopy groups are non-Abelian. Under such circumstances, the topological charge of each individual object is no longer a conserved quantity and can be transformed to each other. Yet, we can identify the conservation law by considering the back-action of topological influence. We develop a general theory of topological influence and back-action based on the commutators of the underlying homotopy groups. We illustrate the case of the topological influence of a half-quantum vortex on the sign change of a point defect and point out that the topological back-action from the point defect is such twisting of the vortex that the total twist of the vortex line carries the change in the point-defect charge to conserve the total charge. We use this theory to classify charge transfers in condensed matter systems and show that a non-Abelian charge transfer can be realized in a spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensate.

Raman-dressed spin-1 spin-orbit-coupled quantum gas

The recently realized spin-orbit-coupled quantum gases [Lin et al., Nature (London) 471, 83 (2011); Wang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 095301 (2012); Cheuk et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 095302 (2012)] mark a breakthrough in the cold atom community. In these experiments, two hyperfine states are selected from a hyperfine manifold to mimic a pseudospin-1/2 spin-orbit-coupled system by the method of Raman dressing, which is applicable to both bosonic and fermionic gases. In this paper, we show that the method used in these experiments can be generalized to create any large pseudospin spin-orbit-coupled gas if more hyperfine states are coupled equally by the Raman lasers. As an example, we study, in detail, a quantum gas with three hyperfine states coupled by the Raman lasers and show, when the state-dependent energy shifts of the three states are comparable, triple-degenerate minima will appear at the bottom of the band dispersions, thus, realizing a spin-1 spin-orbit-coupled quantum gas. A novel feature of this three-minima regime is that there can be two different kinds of stripe phases with different wavelengths, which has an interesting connection to the ferromagnetic and polar phases of spin-1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates without spin-orbit coupling.

Energetic Stability of Coreless Vortices in Spin-1 Bose-Einstein Condensates with Conserved Magnetization

We show that conservation of longitudinal magnetization in a spinor condensate provides a stabilizing mechanism for a coreless vortex phase-imprinted on a polar condensate. The stable vortex can form a composite topological defect with distinct small- and large-distance topology: the inner ferromagnetic coreless vortex continuously deforms toward an outer singular, singly quantized polar vortex. A similar mechanism can also stabilize a nonsingular nematic texture in the polar phase. A weak magnetization is shown to destabilize a coreless vortex in the ferromagnetic phase.

Modulational instability of nematic phase

We numerically observe the effect of homogeneous magnetic field on the modulationally stable case of polar phase in F = 2 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Also we investigate the modulational instability of uniaxial and biaxial (BN) states of polar phase. Our observations show that the magnetic field triggers the modulational instability and demonstrate that irrespective of the magnetic field effect the uniaxial and biaxial nematic phases show modulational instability.

Turbulence in quantum fluids

This paper reviews briefly the recent important developments in the physics of quantum turbulence (QT) in superfluid helium and atomic Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs). After giving the basics of quantum hydrodynamics, we discuss energy spectrum, QT created by vibrating structures, and visualization among the topics on superfluid helium. For atomic BECs we review three-dimensional QT, two-component BECs, and spin turbulence in spinor BECs. The last part is devoted to some perspectives of this issue.

Observation of Dirac monopoles in a synthetic magnetic field

Magnetic monopoles--particles that behave as isolated north or south magnetic poles--have been the subject of speculation since the first detailed observations of magnetism several hundred years ago. Numerous theoretical investigations and hitherto unsuccessful experimental searches have followed Dirac's 1931 development of a theory of monopoles consistent with both quantum mechanics and the gauge invariance of the electromagnetic field. The existence of even a single Dirac magnetic monopole would have far-reaching physical consequences, most famously explaining the quantization of electric charge. Although analogues of magnetic monopoles have been found in exotic spin ices and other systems, there has been no direct experimental observation of Dirac monopoles within a medium described by a quantum field, such as superfluid helium-3 (refs 10-13). Here we demonstrate the controlled creation of Dirac monopoles in the synthetic magnetic field produced by a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Monopoles are identified, in both experiments and matching numerical simulations, at the termini of vortex lines within the condensate. By directly imaging such a vortex line, the presence of a monopole may be discerned from the experimental data alone. These real-space images provide conclusive and long-awaited experimental evidence of the existence of Dirac monopoles. Our result provides an unprecedented opportunity to observe and manipulate these quantum mechanical entities in a controlled environment.

Soliton breathers in spin-1 Bose—Einstein condensates

We consider a spin-1 Bose—Einstein condensate trapped in a harmonic potential with different nonlinearity coefficients. We illustrate the dynamics of soliton breathers in two-component and three-component states by numerically solving the one-dimensional time-dependent coupled Gross—Pitaecskii equations (GPEs). We present that two condensates with repulsive interspecies interactions make elastic collision and novel soliton breathers are created in two-component state. We also demonstrate novel soliton breathers in three-component state with attractive coupling constants. Furthermore, possible reasons for creating soliton breathers are discussed.

A kinetic energy reduction technique and characterizations of the ground states of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates

We justify some characterizations of the ground states of spin-1 Bose-Einsteincondensates exhibited from numerical simulations. For ferromagnetic systems, weshow the validity of the single-mode approximation (SMA). For anantiferromagnetic system with nonzero magnetization, we prove the vanishing ofthe $m_F=0$ component. In the end of the paper some remaining degeneratesituations are also discussed. The proofs of the main results are all based ona simple observation, that a redistribution of masses among differentcomponents will reduce the kinetic energy.

Spin turbulence with small spin magnitude in spin-1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We theoretically and numerically study spin turbulence (ST) with small spin magnitude in spin-1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates by using the spin-1 spinor Gross-Pitaevskii (GP)equations. This kind of ST is realized in two cases: (i) with antiferromagnetic interaction and (ii) with ferromagnetic interaction under a static magnetic field. The ST with small spin magnitude can exhibit two characteristic power laws in the spectrum of the spin-dependent interaction energy: -1 and -7/3 power laws in the low- and high-wave-number regions, respectively. These power laws are derived from a Kolmogorov-type dimensional scaling analysis for the equations of motion of the spin vector and nematic tensor. To confirm these power laws, we perform a numerical calculation of the spin-1 spinor GP equations in a two-dimensional uniform system. In case (i), the -7/3 power law appears in the high-wave-number region, but the spectrum in the low-wave-number region deviates from the -1 power law. In contrast, both -1 and -7/3 power laws are found to clearly appear in case (ii).

Observation of a Geometric Hall Effect in a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate with a Skyrmion Spin Texture

For a spin-carrying particle moving in a spatially varying magnetic field, effective electromagnetic forces can arise due to the geometric phase associated with adiabatic spin rotation of the particle. We report the observation of a geometric Hall effect in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate with a Skyrmion spin texture. Under translational oscillations of the spin texture, the condensate resonantly develops a circular motion in a harmonic trap, demonstrating the existence of an effective Lorentz force. When the condensate circulates, quantized vortices are nucleated in the boundary region of the condensate and the vortex number increases over 100 without significant heating. We attribute the vortex nucleation to the shearing effect of the effective Lorentz force from the inhomogeneous effective magnetic field.

Superfluid–Mott-insulator transition of spin-1 bosons in optical resonators

We consider an antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a Fabry-P\'erot optical resonator in which the intracavity light field forms an optical lattice potential for the atoms. Special emphasis is paid to the cavity-mediated superfluid--Mott-insulator transition. We find that exotic phase diagrams can appear due to the competition between cavity-induced nonlinear interactions and the atomic spin-dependent collision interactions.

Spin-glass-like behavior in the spin turbulence of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We study numerically the spin turbulence in spin-1 ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Spin turbulence (ST) is characterized by a -7/3 power law in the spectrum of the spin-dependent interaction energy. The direction of the spin density vector is spatially disordered but temporally frozen in ST, showing some analogy with the spin glass state. Thus, we introduce the order parameter of spin glass into ST in spinor BECs. When ST develops through some instability, the order parameter grows with a -7/3 power law, thus succeeding in describing ST well.

Quantum backaction in spinor-condensate magnetometry

We provide a theoretical treatment of the quantum backaction of Larmor frequency measurements on a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate by an off-resonant light field. Two main results are presented; the first is a "quantum jump" operator description that reflects the abrupt change in the spin state of the atoms when a single photon is counted at a photodiode. The second is the derivation of a conditional stochastic master equation relating the evolution of the condensate density matrix to the measurement record. We comment on applications of this formalism to metrology and many-body studies.

Stability of persistent currents in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

Motivated by a recent experiment [S. Beattie, S. Moulder, R. J. Fletcher, and Z. Hadzibabic, PRL 110, 025301 (2013)] we study the superflow of atomic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates optically trapped in a ring-shaped geometry. Within a dissipative mean-field approach we simulate a two-component condensate in conditions adapted to the experiment. In qualitative agreement with the experimental findings, we observe persistent currents, if the spin-population imbalance is above some well-defined `critical' value. The triply charged vortices decay in quantized steps. The vortex lines escape from the center of the ring through dynamically created regions in the condensate annulus with reduced density of one component filled by atoms of the other component. The vortices then leave the ring-shaped high density region of the condensate and finally decay into elementary excitations.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We present an analytical model for the theoretical analysis of spin dynamics and spontaneous symmetry breaking in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). This allows for an excellent intuitive understanding of the processes and provides good quantitative agreement with experimental results in Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 135302 (2010). It is shown that the dynamics of a spinor BEC initially prepared in an unstable Zeeman state mF=0 (|0>) can be understood by approximating the effective trapping potential for the state |+-1> with a cylindrical box potential. The resonances in the creation efficiency of these atom pairs can be traced back to excitation modes of this confinement. The understanding of these excitation modes allows for a detailed characterization of the symmetry breaking mechanism, showing how a twofold spontaneous breaking of spatial and spin symmetry can occur. In addition a detailed account of the experimental methods for the preparation and analysis of spinor quantum gases is given.

Non-autonomous bright matter wave solitons in spinor Bose–Einstein condensates

We investigate the dynamics of bright matter wave solitons in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with time modulated nonlinearities. We obtain soliton solutions of an integrable autonomous three-coupled Gross-Pitaevskii (3-GP) equations using Hirota's method involving a non-standard bilinearization. The similarity transformations are developed to construct the soliton solutions of non-autonomous 3-GP system. The non-autonomous solitons admit different density profiles. An interesting phenomenon of soliton compression is identified for kink-like nonlinearity coefficient with Hermite-Gaussian-like potential strength. Our study shows that these non-autonomous solitons undergo non-trivial collisions involving condensate switching.

Matter-wave solitons in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate with time-modulated external potential and scattering lengths

In this paper, we present many matter-wave solitons in a system of three component Gross-Pitaevskii equation arising from the context of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates with time-modulated external potential and scattering lengths. The three component Gross-Pitaevskii equation with time-dependent parameters is first transformed into a three coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equation, then the exact soliton solutions of the three coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equation are given explicitly. Finally, the dynamics of the matter-wave solitons in the F = 1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates is examined by specially choosing the frequency of the external potential. It is shown that when the frequency of the external potential is constant, there exist different kinds of matter-wave solitons as the atomic s-wave scattering lengths are varied about time, such as solitons with shape changing interactions, two-soliton bound states, squeezed matter-wave solitons, single bright and dark solitons. When the frequency of the external potential is time-modulated, there also exist various matter-wave solitons in the F = 1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates, and we show that the time evolutions of the matter-wave solitons are sharply changed by the time-dependent trap frequency and nonlinear coefficients.