The spin structures of small spin-1 condensates ( N ⩽ 1000) under a magnetic field B have been studied beyond the mean field theory. Instead of the spinors, the many body spin eigenstates have been obtained. We have defined and calculated the spin correlative probabilities to extract information from these eigenstates. The correlation coefficients and the fidelity susceptibility have also been calculated. Thereby, the details of the spin structures responding to the variation of B can be better understood. In particular, from the correlation coefficients, which are the ratio of the two-body probability to the product of two one-body probabilities, strong correlation domains of B are found. The emphasis is placed on the sensitivity of the condensates toward B . No phase transitions in spin structures are found. However, abrupt changes in the derivatives of observables (correlative probabilities) are found in some particular domains of B . In these domains, the condensates are highly sensitive to B . The effect of temperature is considered. The probabilities defined in the paper can work as a bridge to relate theories and experiments. Therefore, they can be used to discriminate various spin structures and refine the interactions.
The spin structures of small spin-1 condensates ( N ⩽ 1000) under a magnetic field B have been studied beyond the mean field theory. Instead of the spinors, the many body spin eigenstates have been obtained. We have defined and calculated the spin correlative probabilities to extract information from these eigenstates. The correlation coefficients and the fidelity susceptibility have also been calculated. Thereby, the details of the spin structures responding to the variation of B can be better understood. In particular, from the correlation coefficients, which are the ratio of the two-body probability to the product of two one-body probabilities, strong correlation domains of B are found. The emphasis is placed on the sensitivity of the condensates toward B . No phase transitions in spin structures are found. However, abrupt changes in the derivatives of observables (correlative probabilities) are found in some particular domains of B . In these domains, the condensates are highly sensitive to B . The effect of temperature is considered. The probabilities defined in the paper can work as a bridge to relate theories and experiments. Therefore, they can be used to discriminate various spin structures and refine the interactions.
The response of spin-2 small condensates to an external magnetic field B is studied. The parameters of the interaction are considered as variable. The emphasis is placed on clarifying the modes of excitation caused by the quadratic Zeeman term. The theoretical method used is beyond the mean-field theory. A set of eigenstates with the $\text{U}(5)\ensuremath{\supset}\text{SO}(5)\ensuremath{\supset}\text{SO}(3)$ symmetry is introduced to facilitate the analysis. To obtain a quantitative evaluation on the response, the fidelity susceptibility and the B-dependent average populations of spin components have been calculated. Mostly the particle number N=30 is assumed. The effect with a larger or smaller N is also considered. It was found that the sensitivity of the response depends strongly both on the interaction and on the inherent symmetry.
In this thesis, we study theoretically and in experimentally the properties of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with antiferromagnetic interactions realized in the ultra-cold sodium gases confined in optical dipole traps. We present in detail how to realize, diagnose and control the spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in our experiment. In order to describe the condensate, a mean-field theory is first adopted. This theory predicts a phase transition when changing the magnetic field B. The predictions of the mean-field theory agree very well with most of our experimental results, including the values of the critical magnetic field Bc, asymptotic values of n0 (relative atom number in mF=0 state) at large B and the phase diagram of n0. However, for small magnetization and small magnetic fields, we find abnormally large fluctuations (super-Poissonian) of n0. In order to describe these large fluctuations, we develop a full quantum statistical description for the spinor condensate at finite temperature. To describe uncondensed thermal atoms (also present in the same trap), we use the ``semi-ideal" Hartree-Fock approximation to deal with the interactions between the condensate atoms and the thermal ones. The experimental results lead us to introduce two kinds of temperatures, the ``spin temperature" Ts and the ``kinetic temperature" Tk with Ts≪Tk, characterizing respectively the fluctuaitons of the condensate spin and the thermal gas. We conclude that the system is reaching a quasi-equilibrium states, where different degrees of freedom reach equilibrium by separate mechanisms but where the mutual thermalization does not occur over the lifetime of the cloud.
Ultra-cold spinor Bose gases present rich physics due to the special combination of superfluidity and magnetism in a quantum system. This system was first realized in 1998 by confining a Bose-Einstein condensate in an all-optical trap.\nIn this thesis, we consider the fluctuations of observable quantities in a spin-1 Bose gas. Understanding how fluctuations arise due to the spin excitations of the condensate is important because it offers an insight into how measurement noise reveals the many-body physics of the system.\nTo begin, we present the mean-field and Bogoliubov theory of a uniform spin-1 Bose gas subject to a constant magnetic field, describing the condensate and its low-energy collective excitations.\nWe then develop a formalism to describe the fluctuations in a general density-like observable. We start from the two-point correlation function and cast it in the form of a generalised static structure factor determined by the three Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitation branches. We derive analytic results for the fluctuation amplitudes and the temperature-dependent static structure factors for observables of total density and the three spin densities.\nFor all four magnetic phases, we analyse the spinor order parameter and quasiparticle spectra while numerically mapping out the fluctuation amplitudes and static structure factors for the total and spin density operators.\nWe describe the fluctuations in experimental measurements made within finite cells, which is an important step to making meaningful predictions for experiments. We consider cylindrical cells and gaussian cells as two limiting cases. We apply this analysis to an experimentally realisable system of a quasi-2D spinor gas in a harmonic trap, comparing extensive numeric results with analytic limits.
Spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are multi-component superfluids with magnetic interactions, formed from dilute gases of atoms in the Zeeman sublevels mF of a single hyperfine ground state F. Spinor BECs are inherently magnetic quantum objects, and exhibit a multitude of features such as spin domains, magnon excitations, and distinct magnetic phases. At the heart of the magnetic nature of a spinor BEC is the spin-dependent collisional interaction c, which determines the overall magnetic behaviour of the superfluid. In conjunction with the quadratic Zeeman shift q, the magnitude and sign of c give rise to an intricate magnetic phase diagram. The magnetic phase of a spinor BEC is tunable, and c and q are the knobs. In addition to realising quantum simulators of magnetism, spinor BECs are also precise magnetic sensors. Atomic magnetometry measures the Larmor precession frequency of atoms, which is proportional to the magnetic field strength. The sensitivity of an atomic magnetometer is principally dependent on the duration of the measurement (interrogation time) and number of atoms participating in the measurement. BECs are highly suitable as atomic magnetometers, allowing for long interrogation times and high atomic density, with microscopic sensor volumes. The latter is an important consideration, as measurement of small magnetic sources demand equally microscopic sensors. Established forms of magnetometry (such as warm vapour magnetometers) use large sensing volumes and are not trivially miniaturised. The exquisite sensitivity of a spinor BEC to magnetic fields becomes a liability when one studies low energy (~ 1 Hz) spinor physics over long evolution times (100 ms) in a typical laboratory environment. To first order, the spin-collisional interaction is independent of the magnetic field. However, spatially inhomogeneous magnetic fields are problematic, exerting mechanical forces on the magnetically sensitive spin components, suppressing spin collisions and possibly introducing relaxation mechanisms that confound the observation of intrinsic equilibration. Precise characterisation of magnetic field gradients and their cancellation is thus of paramount importance. In this thesis, the interaction of a spinor BEC with its environment is studied. The construction, operation and optimisation of a BEC machine is described in detail, as well as the quantum state preparation and control techniques used. Spin-mixing collisions were studied by observing population oscillations, the characteristic hallmark of such coherent phenomena. The observed population dynamics showed strong evidence of the deleterious effects of magnetic field gradients. A series of experiments were performed using spin-echo pulse sequences to decouple the evolving spinor condensate from the inhomogeneous magnetic environment with encouraging results, but which posed further questions. The fidelity of spin-echo pulses in the strong radiative coupling regime was also studied. Spinor condensates were then employed as sensitive magnetometers to characterise the magnetic landscape they inhabit. A new method of measuring magnetic field gradients was developed, using a pair of spinor BECs separated in space that are simultaneously addressed by a Ramsey interferometry sequence. Combined with a re-orientable magnetic bias field, the resulting gradiometer was used to measure the magnetic field gradient tensor in vacuo. This scheme can be extended to realise a high-precision vector co-magnetometer, with spatiotemporal sensitivity comparable to established forms of magnetometry. Vector light shifts (VLSs) are optically-induced energy shifts that result in effective magnetic fields, which in our case originate from the laser beams used to trap the atoms. The VLS vanishes for purely linearly polarised light, which is experimentally difficult to obtain in vacuo. Small elliptical polarisation imperfections originating from birefringent optics and the glass vacuum cell result in a non-zero shift that contaminates magnetometry measurements. The VLS is spatially varying due to the intensity gradient of the trapping light. Due to gravitational sag of the trapping potential, the spatial variation of the VLS is accentuated, resulting in an effective magnetic field gradient that contributes to dephasing and component separation. The simultaneous Ramsey interferometry experiments are then adapted to measure the VLS-induced Zeeman shift and diagnose its elimination. Up to 99.96% of the VLS is eliminated using this method, and extensions to the technique are described.
Abstract Based on the numerical solutions of the coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations, the spin-textures of the ground state of a Bose–Einstein condensate with two kinds of spin-1 atoms have been studied. Besides, making use of the fractional parentage coefficients, the probabilities of an atom in spin component μ and of two correlated atoms one in μ and one in ν have been calculated. The previous results under the single spatial mode approximation (SMA) are found to be qualitatively consistent with the present results beyond the SMA. The variation of the probabilities against the input parameters is found to match the corresponding variation of the spin-textures excellently. In particular, once a spin-texture transition occurs, the associated probabilities will change suddenly. Since the probabilities are observable, the observation provides a way for the experimental identification of the spin-textures. Besides, sine the critical points (where a transition occurs) can be accurately identified, information on the input parameters (say, the very weak spin-dependent forces) can be extracted.