We study the evolution of density in an expanding Bose-Einstein condensate that initially has a spatially varying phase, concentrating on behavior when these phase variations are large. In this regime large density fluctuations develop during expansion. Maxima have a characteristic density that diverges with the amplitude of phase variations and their formation is analogous to that of caustics in geometrical optics. We analyze in detail caustic formation in a quasi-one-dimensional condensate, which before expansion is subject to a periodic or random optical potential, and we discuss the equivalent problem for a quasi-two-dimensional system. We also examine the influence of many-body correlations in the initial state on caustic formation for a Bose gas expanding from a strictly one-dimensional trap. In addition, we study a similar arrangement for noninteracting fermions, showing that Fermi surface discontinuities in the momentum distribution give rise in that case to sharp peaks in the spatial derivative of the density. We discuss recent experiments and argue that fringes reported in time of flight images [Chen et al., Phys. Rev. A 77, 033632 (2008)] are an example of caustic formation.
We study the evolution of density in an expanding Bose-Einstein condensate that initially has a spatially varying phase, concentrating on behavior when these phase variations are large. In this regime large density fluctuations develop during expansion. Maxima have a characteristic density that diverges with the amplitude of phase variations and their formation is analogous to that of caustics in geometrical optics. We analyze in detail caustic formation in a quasi-one-dimensional condensate, which before expansion is subject to a periodic or random optical potential, and we discuss the equivalent problem for a quasi-two-dimensional system. We also examine the influence of many-body correlations in the initial state on caustic formation for a Bose gas expanding from a strictly one-dimensional trap. In addition, we study a similar arrangement for noninteracting fermions, showing that Fermi surface discontinuities in the momentum distribution give rise in that case to sharp peaks in the spatial derivative of the density. We discuss recent experiments and argue that fringes reported in time of flight images [Chen et al., Phys. Rev. A 77, 033632 (2008)] are an example of caustic formation.
We investigate the expansion dynamics of a Bose–Einstein condensate that consists of two components and is initially confined in a quasi-one-dimensional trap. We classify the possible initial states of the two-component condensate by taking into account the nonuniformity of the distributions of its components and construct the corresponding phase diagram in the plane of nonlinear interaction constants. The differential equations that describe the condensate evolution are derived by assuming that the condensate density and velocity depend on the spatial coordinate quadratically and linearly, respectively, which reproduces the initial equilibrium distribution of the condensate in the trap in the Thomas–Fermi approximation. We have obtained self-similar solutions of these differential equations for several important special cases and write out asymptotic formulas describing the condensate motion on long time scales, when the condensate density becomes so low that the interaction between atoms may be neglected. The problem on the dynamics of immiscible components with the formation of dispersive shock waves is considered. We compare the numerical solutions of the Gross–Pitaevskii equations with their approximate analytical solutions and numerically study the situations where the analytical method being used admits no exact solutions.
We study, within the framework of the classical-field approximation, the density correlations of a weakly interacting expanding Bose gas for the whole range of temperatures across the Bose-Einstein condensation threshold. We focus on elongated quasi-one-dimensional systems where there is a huge discrepancy between the existing theory and experimental results [A. Perrin et al., Nat. Phys. 8, 195 (2012)]. We find that the density correlation function is not reduced for temperatures below the critical one as it is predicted for the ideal gas or for a weakly interacting system within the Bogoliubov approximation. This behavior of the density correlations agrees with the above-mentioned experiment with the elongated system. Although the system was much larger than that studied here, we believe that the behavior of the density correlation function found there is quite generic. Our theoretical study indicates also large density fluctuations in the trap in the quasicondensate regime where only phase fluctuations were expected. We argue that the enhanced density fluctuations can originate in the presence of interactions in the system, or more precisely in the presence of spontaneous dark solitons in the elongated gas at thermal equilibrium.
When a gas of bosonic atoms is cooled sufficiently near to absolute zero, it undergoes a startling transition from a collection of randomly-behaved individual atoms to a phase in which thousands, even millions, of atoms act in collective unison. In this new phase, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), the atoms all occupy the exact same quantum mechanical ground state and can be collectively described by a single phase-coherent wavefunction of macroscopic size. But how exactly does this harmonious behaviour arise within a collection of incoherent atoms as their temperature decreases? Does the condensate wavefunction grow from a single central nucleus, or does it emerge simultaneously throughout the system? And how does the situation differ when the gas is cooled suddenly, away from thermodynamic equilibrium? Can non-equilibrium behaviour be inherited by the condensate that forms? In this thesis we aim to answer these and other questions by studying the formation dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates and the development of phase coherence. The research described herein makes use of several theoretical tools, which we lay out on the workbench in Chapter 2: Semi-classical Hartree-Fock theory provides a mean-field description of a condensate and thermal cloud at equilibrium; Quantum kinetic theory is used to calculate the dynamics of condensate growth into an equilibrium state, from a non-equilibrium thermal cloud; The stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation (SPGPE) employs a classical-field description to encapsulate the non-equilibrium dynamics of the condensate and low-energy region of the atom cloud, coupled to an equilibrium thermal cloud. This thesis is composed of four principal studies, each constituting a separate chapter.In Chapter 3 we study the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a cigar-shaped 3D harmonic trap, induced by the controlled addition of an attractive ``dimple'' potential along the weak axis in a recent experiment [Garrett et al., Phys. Rev. A 83, 013630 (2011)]. In this manner condensation is induced without cooling due to a localized increase in the phase space density. We perform a quantitative analysis of the thermodynamic transformation in both the sudden and adiabatic regimes for a range of dimple widths and depths. We find good agreement with equilibrium calculations based on self-consistent semi-classical Hartree-Fock theory describing the condensate and thermal cloud. We observe there is an optimal dimple depth that results in a maximum in the condensate fraction. We also study the non-equilibrium dynamics of condensate formation in the sudden turn-on regime, finding good agreement for the observed time dependence of the condensate fraction with calculations based on quantum kinetic theory. In Chapter 4 we study the onset of phase coherence during the formation of a BEC following a sudden quench to below the transition temperature. Using the SPGPE, we simulate a recent experiment performed at ANU in which a sudden RF quench is applied to a dilute gas of metastable Helium atoms confined in an elongated 3D harmonic magnetic trap. At regularly-spaced intervals following the quench, broadband RF pulses are applied to homogeneously outcouple small (<5%) pulses of atoms, which expand and fall to a microchannel plate detector. The second-order correlation function at the detector, postulated to provide a measure of phase coherence of the in-situ cloud from which they were outcoupled, is measured versus time and compared with the condensate growth curve. A delay was observed in the relaxation of the second-order correlation function, relative to the peak in the number of condensate atoms. In our simulations we incorporate the effects of periodic outcoupling both the condensate and thermal cloud, and monitor the time-dependence of first- and second-order correlation functions in both position and momentum space. We observe long-range phase coherence in the final equilibrium state, though mild persistent phase fluctuations are present. We also observe the curious phenomenon of ``superbunching'' - an enhancement of density fluctuations - at specific values of the momentum, which we relate to anomalous correlations of fluctuations. Despite obtaining a good quantitative fit to the experimentally-measured condensate growth curve in our SPGPE simulations, we do not observe any evidence of the delay in coherence observed in the experiment, which remains unexplained. In Chapter 5 we use the SPGPE to study the crossover from a true BEC with long-range phase coherence to a quasicondensate dominated by phase fluctuations, for the case of a Bose gas in an highly-elongated 3D harmonic trap. We use parameters corresponding to an experiment in which a sudden quench resulted in the formation of a non-equilibrium condensate, the dynamics of which we study in the chapter that follows. Sweeping through a range of temperatures and chemical potentials within the crossover region, we reveal the behaviour of phase fluctuations through analysis of correlation functions. We compare the ideal-gas approximation for the transition temperature with the more accurate value obtained via the Binder cumulant. By comparing the phase coherence length with the spatial extent across which density fluctuations are suppressed, we identify the BEC/quasicondensate crossover point. We compare directly with predictions of mean-field theory [Petrov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 050404 (2001)] and find that phase fluctuations persist to lower temperatures in our SPGPE simulations. We calculate anomalous correlations of the fluctuation field and show that the resulting correction to the mean-field condensate self-interaction energy is significant within the quasicondensate regime. In Chapter 6 we study the formation of a BEC into a non-equilibrium state by simulating an experiment in which a dilute gas of Rubidium-87 atoms in a highly-elongated 3D harmonic magnetic trap is rapidly quenched to below the transition temperature. Following the quench, a condensate is observed to form with an excessively elongated shape, and subsequently undergo damped quadrupole shape oscillations [Shvarchuck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 270404 (2002)]. We simulate this experiment by modifying the SPGPE to incorporate a hydrodynamic thermal cloud, parametrized by axially and temporally-dependent temperature and chemical potential. Comparison against simulations without this axial dependence suggests the hydrodynamic behaviour of the thermal cloud plays a crucial role in the formation of a non-equilibrium condensate. Analyses of the first-order correlation function and the condensate wavefunction reveal the spontaneous formation of quantum vortices, as well as strong phase fluctuations at equilibrium indicating quasicondensate behaviour.
We analyze density-density correlations of expanding clouds of weakly interacting two-dimensional Bose gases below and above the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, with particular focus on short-time expansions. During time-of-flight expansion, phase fluctuations of the trapped system translate into density fluctuations, in addition to the density fluctuations that exist in situ. We calculate the correlations of these fluctuations both in real space and in momentum space and derive analytic expressions in momentum space. Below the transition, the correlation functions show an oscillatory behavior, controlled by the scaling exponent of the quasicondensed phase, due to constructive interference. We argue that this can be used to extract the scaling exponent of the quasicondensate experimentally. Above the transition, the interference is rapidly suppressed when the atoms travel an average distance beyond the correlation length. This can be used to distinguish the two phases qualitatively.
We investigate within the Gross-Pitaevski (GP) theory the formation of fringe patterns between two Bose condensates stored in a double well potential modelling the forces applied to the experimental systems. In the case of repulsive interactions between the atoms, we report the onset of interference structures similar to those observed in the experiments, after the release of the confining potential. Conversely, attractive interactions lead to the collapse of the condensate when the number of particles is larger than a critical value. We show that a bias field introduced in the center of the trap allows the system to avoid the blow-up of the density and gives rise to a periodic behavior of growth and decay of spatial modulations reminiscent of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence.
Phonons in expanding Bose–Einstein condensates with wavelengths much larger than the healing length behave in the same way as quantum fields within a universe undergoing an accelerated expansion. This analogy facilitates the application of many tools and concepts known from general relativity (such as horizons) and the prediction of the corresponding effects such as the freezing of modes after horizon crossing and the associated amplification of quantum fluctuations. Basically the same amplification mechanism is (according to our standard model of cosmology) supposed to be responsible for the generation of the initial inhomogeneities—and hence the seeds for the formation of structures such as our galaxy—during cosmic inflation (i.e., a very early epoch in the evolution of our universe). After a general discussion of the analogy ( analogue cosmology ), we calculate the frozen and amplified density–density fluctuations for quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) and three-dimensional (3D) condensates which undergo a free expansion after switching off the (longitudinal) trap.