The properties of phase transitions and the types of order present in the low-temperature states of matter are fundamentally dependent on the dimensionality of physical systems. Generally, highly ordered states are more robust in higher dimensions, while thermal and quantum fluctuations, which favour disordered states, play a more important role in lower dimensions. The case of a two-dimensional (2d) Bose fluid is particularly fascinating because of its "marginal" behaviour. In an infinite uniform 2d fluid thermal fluctuations at any non-zero temperature are strong enough to destroy the fully ordered state associated with Bose--Einstein condensation, but are not strong enough to suppress superfluidity in an interacting system at low, but non-zero temperatures. Further, the presence of residual "quasi-long-range" order at low temperatures leads to an interesting interplay between superfluidity and condensation in all experimentally relevant finite-size systems. In these notes we give an introduction to the physics of 2d Bose fluids from an atomic physics perspective. Our goal is to summarize the recent progress in theoretical understanding and experimental investigation of ultra-cold atomic gases confined to 2d geometry, and we also hope to provide a useful introduction to these systems for researchers working on related topics in other fields of physics.
The properties of phase transitions and the types of order present in the low-temperature states of matter are fundamentally dependent on the dimensionality of physical systems. Generally, highly ordered states are more robust in higher dimensions, while thermal and quantum fluctuations, which favour disordered states, play a more important role in lower dimensions. The case of a two-dimensional (2d) Bose fluid is particularly fascinating because of its "marginal" behaviour. In an infinite uniform 2d fluid thermal fluctuations at any non-zero temperature are strong enough to destroy the fully ordered state associated with Bose--Einstein condensation, but are not strong enough to suppress superfluidity in an interacting system at low, but non-zero temperatures. Further, the presence of residual "quasi-long-range" order at low temperatures leads to an interesting interplay between superfluidity and condensation in all experimentally relevant finite-size systems. In these notes we give an introduction to the physics of 2d Bose fluids from an atomic physics perspective. Our goal is to summarize the recent progress in theoretical understanding and experimental investigation of ultra-cold atomic gases confined to 2d geometry, and we also hope to provide a useful introduction to these systems for researchers working on related topics in other fields of physics.
The refinement and the combination of laser cooling and evaporative cooling in dilute systems of alkali atoms lead to the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in 1995. Nowadays there is a fruitful interplay between theoretical and experimental results: in this context, the study of uniform Bose gases plays an important role in the comprehension of the static and dynamic properties of a bosonic system. Here we use quantum field theory, within the approach of functional integration, to study an homogeneous system of weakly-interacting bosonic cold atoms. After characterizing their thermodynamical properties, we derive - at a gaussian level - the number density and the superfluid density in three and in two spatial dimensions, expressed as functions of the condensate density and the temperature. Since the equations derived are valid for a generic interaction potential, we implement these formulas for bosons with a zero-range interaction, providing also an extension of these results with the inclusion of a finite-range interaction.
Thermal fluctuations, the microscopic fluctuations of things due to their temperature, counteract order in many-body systems. Thermal fluctuations often lead to high-temperature disordered phases and low-temperature ordered ones. In lower dimensions, thermal fluctuations are relatively stronger with two-dimensional materials being just on the brink of thermal fluctuations destroying their order. Twodimensional materials therefore display unique behaviour, for example undergoing a superfluid phase transition driven by point-like topological defects. In this work, we realise two-dimensional bosonic quantum gases of the isotope Rb-87 in precisely controlled potentials to study how quantum-tunnelling and spatially disordered potentials affect the phases of matter they form. We also present a new scheme for cooling quantum gases directly in the finely tuned radiofrequency-dressed traps confining the gases in our experiments. To study tunnel-coupled gases, this work utilises a novel method to read out information from bilayer quantum gas experiments by analysing noise patterns arising from interference effects. We find that quantum-tunnelling between the two layers in a bilayer system can cause both layers to remain superfluid at higher temperatures than without quantum tunnelling. We compare our results to predictions using renormalisation-group theory and numerical simulations. We experimentally observe the predicted double-layer superfluid phase, a novel phase where the U(1) symmetry of the relative phase is broken and relative excitations are suppressed. Separately, we investigate the topological Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition in disordered two-dimensional Bose gases. We find that such systems can be driven across this phase transition by increasing the strength of an applied disordered potential. We experimentally map out the phase diagram for a continuous 2D Bose gas in the presence of disorder, which has not previously been carried out to the best of our knowledge. We find that the presence of disorder increases the number of topological defects at a given temperature while reducing the rate at which the number of defects increases with temperature. The experimental results for 2D disordered Bose gases are in qualitative agreement with numerical simulations for the parameter regime studied.
The physical properties of a homogeneous system at the thermodynamic equilibrium are strongly constrained by its dimensionality. In this respect, the two dimensional Bose gas constitutes a particularly interesting system: while it is impossible to observe a long range order at non-zero temperatures, there exists nevertheless a phase transition to a superfluid state at low temperatures. Furthermore, owing to the reduced dimensionality, the equation of state of the weakly interacting two-dimensional Bose gas is scale invariant. In this thesis, we present an experimental study of the two-dimensional Bose gas. We measure its equation of state with two different methods, and find a good agreement with analytic and numerical predictions. These results confirm as well the scale invariance of the system. Furthermore, one of the methods allows for a determination of the equation of state with a single adjustable parameter. We then characterize the superfluid response of the system., by showing evidence for a dissipationless response of the system to a moving perturbation. Finally, we analyze the fluctuations dynamics of the 2D Bose gas, which confirms both the suppression of density fluctuations in the superfluid phase, and the dominating contribution of phonons to the phase fluctuations.
The dimensionality of a system strongly affects its physical properties; the phase transitions that take place and the type of order that arises depend on the dimension. In low dimensional systems phase coherence proves more difficult to achieve as both thermal and quantum fluctuations play a stronger role. The two-dimensional Bose fluid is of particular interest as even if full order is precluded, a residual "quasi-long" range order arises at low temperatures. Then two ingredients have a significant effect on the state of the system: (i) the finite size of a real system enables one to recover of a macroscopic occupation of a single-particle state; (ii) the interactions between particles lead to the emergence of a non-conventional type of phase transition toward a superfluid state.In this thesis, we present an experimental study of the two-dimensional (2D) Bose gas using two different energy landscapes to trap our atoms. In the first part, we use the spatial dependence of some local properties of an inhomogeneous gas to characterize the state of the equivalent homogeneous system. We extract its equation of state with a high accuracy from the gas density profiles and test its superfluid behavior by measuring the heating induced by a moving local perturbation. In the second part, we observe and characterize the emergence of an extended phase coherence in a 2D homogeneous gas in particular via a 3D-to-2D dimensional crossover. We investigate the dynamical establishment of the coherence via a rapid crossing of the dimensional crossover and observe topological defects in the final superfluid state. We compare our findings with the predictions for the Kibble–Zurek mechanism.
In this thesis we present a detailed investigation of the role played by quantum and thermal fluctuations in ultracold Bose gases. We begin with a review of several important concepts and analytical tools within a functional integration formalism. We first focus on the so-called zero-range approximation for the interaction potential, by recovering the Bogoliubov results and the Landau two-fluid model from a field-theory perspective. In deriving the beyond-mean-field equation of state, we are going to show that a crucial point concerns the proper regularization of the divergent zero-point energy. Among the alternative approaches to investigate finite-temperatures Bose gases, we apply the kinetic theory to explain some recent results on the sound propagation in two-dimensional Bose gases. We then move to consider the eventual corrections to the thermodynamics of Bose gases due to the finite-range character of the interaction potential. The coupling constants of the finite-range model are related to measurable scattering parameters through an effective-field-theory approach. The role of finite-range corrections is considered not only in three spatial dimensions but also in systems with lower dimensionalities. Our analytical predictions are in good agreement with available Monte Carlo simulations and consistent with other theoretical frames, as the Lieb-Lininger theory for one-dimensional systems. In the third chapter, the relevance of fluctuations is investigated from an alternative point of view. Indeed, for a single-component Bose gas we have actually considered their effect as deviations of thermodynamic quantities from the mean-field and zero-range picture. In the case of collapsing Bose mixtures, we are going to show that zero-temperature fluctuations play a crucial stabilizing role against the collapse instability. Because of this peculiar mechanism, ultracold mixtures can display finite-density configurations also in free space. Inspired by recent experiments, we characterize this novel self-bound state by comparison with bright solitons, following a variational scheme. We also consider the case of binary mixtures where a coherent internal coupling is turned on. In the last chapter, we move to deal with dipolar condensates. In particular, we are interested in beyond-mean-field effects leading to the formation of inhomogeneous ground states. In order to provide a reliable answer to the open issue of superfluid properties of these structures, we present our recent numerical investigation on the phase diagram of dipolar bosons.
Superfluid and superconducting phase transitions of interacting bosons are observed in diverse physical systems such as helium, superconducting materials, ultra-cold atomic gases, etc. For all these systems one-, two-, and three-dimensional (1D, 2D, and 3D) realizations are experimentally accessible. However, the current experimental focus is shifting to the low dimensional systems (e.g., films and wires) due to facilitated measurement techniques and a constant demand of technological applications. From a theoretical standpoint large fluctuations in 1D and 2D systems make them a challenging problem, especially when disorder is present. Here we study peculiarities associated with disorder in low-dimensional cases. Specifically, we are interested in the class of the systems where superfluid or superconducting transitions can be mapped to the finite temperature 2D superfluid-normal Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition: (a) 2D bosonic system with a strong diagonal disorder, (b) 1D system of lattice bosons with off-diagonal disorder in the limit of large integer filling factor at zero temperature, and (c) 3D layered superconductors with no tunnelling between layers in zero external magnetic field.