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arXiv:1011.6289 · Physical Review A

Many-body physics in the classical-field description of a degenerate Bose gas

Tod M. Wright, Nick P. Proukakis, Matthew J. Davis

Published Aug 5, 2011• 30 citations
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Abstract

The classical-field formalism has been widely applied in the calculation of normal correlation functions, and the characterization of condensation, in finite-temperature Bose gases. Here we discuss the extension of this method to the calculation of more general correlations, including the so-called anomalous correlations of the field, without recourse to symmetry-breaking assumptions. Our method is based on the introduction of $\mathrm{U}(1)$-symmetric classical-field variables analogous to the modified quantum ladder operators of number-conserving approaches to the degenerate Bose gas, and allows us to rigorously quantify the anomalous and non-Gaussian character of the field fluctuations. We compare our results for anomalous correlation functions with the predictions of mean-field theories, and demonstrate that the nonlinear classical-field dynamics incorporate a full description of many-body processes which modify the effective mean-field potentials experienced by condensate and noncondensate atoms. We discuss the role of these processes in shaping the condensate mode, and thereby demonstrate the consistency of the Penrose-Onsager definition of the condensate orbital in the classical-field equilibrium. We consider the contribution of various noncondensate-field correlations to the overall suppression of density fluctuations and interactions in the field, and demonstrate the distinct roles of phase and density fluctuations in the transition of the field to the normal phase.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.84.023608

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We study the equilibrium correlations of a Bose gas in an elongated three-dimensional harmonic trap using a grand-canonical classical-field method. We focus in particular on the progressive transformation of the gas from the normal phase, through a phase-fluctuating quasicondensate regime to the so-called true-condensate regime, with decreasing temperature. Choosing realistic experimental parameters, we quantify the density fluctuations and phase coherence of the atomic field as functions of the system temperature. We identify the onset of Bose condensation through analysis of both the generalized Binder cumulant appropriate to the inhomogeneous system, and the suppression of the effective many-body TTT matrix that characterizes interactions between condensate atoms in the finite-temperature field. We find that the system undergoes a second-order transition to condensation near the critical temperature for an ideal Bose gas in the strongly anisotropic three-dimensional geometry but remains in a strongly phase-fluctuating quasicondensate regime until significantly lower temperatures. We characterize the crossover from a quasicondensate to a true condensate by a qualitative change in the form of the nonlocal first-order coherence function of the field and compare our results to those of previous works employing a density-phase Bogoliubov--de Gennes analysis.
We investigate the behavior of the anomalous correlation function in two-dimensional Bose gas. In the local case, we find that this quantity has a finite value in the limit of weak interactions at zero temperature. The effects of the anomalous density on some thermodynamic quantities are also considered. These effects can modify, in particular, the chemical potential, the ground-state energy, the depletion, and the superfluid fraction. Our predictions are in good agreement with recent analytical and numerical calculations. We show also that the anomalous density presents a significant importance compared to the noncondensed one at zero temperature. The single-particle anomalous correlation function is expressed in two-dimensional homogenous Bose gases by using the density-phase fluctuation. We then confirm that the anomalous average accompanies in analogous manner the true condensate at zero temperature, while it does not exist at finite temperature.
We present our views on the issues raised in the previous chapter by Griffin and Zaremba. We review some of the strengths and limitations of the Bose symmetry-breaking assumption, and explain how such an approach precludes the description of many important phenomena in degenerate Bose gases. We discuss the theoretical justification for the classical-field (c-field) methods, their relation to other non-perturbative methods for similar systems, and their utility in the description of beyond-mean-field physics. Although it is true that present implementations of c-field methods cannot accurately describe certain collective oscillations of the partially condensed Bose gas, there is no fundamental reason why these methods cannot be extended to treat such scenarios. By contrast, many regimes of non-equilibrium dynamics that can be described with c-field methods are beyond the reach of generalised mean-field kinetic approaches based on symmetry breaking, such as the ZNG formalism.
The theory of non-interacting Bose gases is supplemented by a numerical quantum field description with a two-dimensional non-local order parameter that allows the modeling of wave-like atomic correlations and interference effects in the limit of low atomic densities. From the present model, it is possible to explain symmetry aspects of non-interacting and very weakly interacting Bose gases in the limit of fluctuating particle numbers, like the forward propagation of time and the relation to the breaking and preservation of phase gauge symmetry in solids. In the present formalism, the propagation of one-directional time arises from the pre-defined and equivalent convergence of independent quantum fields towards the Boltzmann equilibrium, and it is shown that Glauber coherent states are related to the definition of the quantized field. Coherently coupling condensate and non-condensate parts as a direct consequence of the increasing quantum coherence time between the different quantum field components in the Bose gas from cooling to below the critical temperature, the present model describes symmetry breaking, which is originally known from the definition of a specific gauge field from Elitzur's theorem for local gauge fields, as a global physical rather than a purely formal mathematical process.
In this thesis, we perform investigations into the behaviour of finite-temperature degenerate Bose gases using a classical-field formalism, focussing in particular on the dynamics of quantum vortices in these systems. We demonstrate that the coherence of the classical field can be characterised by its temporal correlations, and discuss how the phase-symmetry-broken averages familiar from mean-field theories emerge from the field trajectories. We show that a finite-temperature condensate containing a precessing vortex in a cylindrically symmetric trap can be realised as an ergodic equilibrium of the classical-field theory, and demonstrate the identification of the rotationally symmetry-broken condensate orbital and core-filling thermal component from the field correlations. We then consider the nonequilibrium dynamics that result when such a precessing-vortex configuration is subjected to a static trap anisotropy which arrests its rotation, and observe novel coupled relaxation dynamics of the condensed and noncondensed components of the field. Finally, we consider the nucleation of vortices in an initially zero-temperature quasi-two-dimensional condensate stirred by a rotating trap anisotropy. We quantify the emergence of a rotating thermal component of the field, which drives the nucleation of vortices from condensate-surface oscillations, and study the relaxation and rotational equilibration of the initially turbulent collection of vortices. We find that thermal fluctuations of the field prevent the vortices from settling into a rigid crystalline lattice in this reduced dimensionality, and that true condensation in the field is completely destroyed by the disordered motion of vortices. We show, however, that the temporal correlations of the field distinguish the quasi-coherent vortex-liquid phase in the trap centre from the truly thermal material in its periphery.