We use the Bogoliubov theory of Bose-Einstein condensation to study the properties of dipolar particles (atoms or molecules) confined in a uniform two-dimensional geometry at zero temperature. We find equilibrium solutions to the dipolar Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. Using these solutions we study the effects of quantum fluctuations in the system, particularly focussing on the instability point, where the roton feature in the excitation spectrum touches zero. Specifically, we look at the behaviour of the noncondensate density, the phase fluctuations, and the density fluctuations in the system. Near the instability, the density-density correlation function shows a particularly intriguing oscillatory behaviour. Higher order correlation functions display a distinct hexagonal lattice pattern formation, demonstrating how an observation of broken symmetry can emerge from a translationally symmetric quantum state.
We use the Bogoliubov theory of Bose-Einstein condensation to study the properties of dipolar particles (atoms or molecules) confined in a uniform two-dimensional geometry at zero temperature. We find equilibrium solutions to the dipolar Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. Using these solutions we study the effects of quantum fluctuations in the system, particularly focussing on the instability point, where the roton feature in the excitation spectrum touches zero. Specifically, we look at the behaviour of the noncondensate density, the phase fluctuations, and the density fluctuations in the system. Near the instability, the density-density correlation function shows a particularly intriguing oscillatory behaviour. Higher order correlation functions display a distinct hexagonal lattice pattern formation, demonstrating how an observation of broken symmetry can emerge from a translationally symmetric quantum state.
The work of this thesis concerns the properties of a Bose gas of polarised dipoles that have long-range and anisotropic interactions. Our work is divided into two parts. First, the stability of a dipolar Bose gas at finite temperature (both above and below the critical Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) temperature Tc). Second, the fluctuations of a dipolar BEC at zero and small finite temperature (T ≪ Tc) in a regime where rotonic excitations emerge. \n \nPart I: Stability of a Trapped Finite Temperature Dipolar Bose Gas: Above Tc we implement a semiclassical Hartree-Fock theory and characterise the dependence of the stability boundary on temperature, trap geometry and the strength of the dipole-dipole interaction and contact interaction. We find that stability is greatly enhanced above Tc and that trap geometry continues to play a key role. Furthermore, we find that for oblate traps a novel double instability feature emerges. \nTo extend our stability analysis to the low temperature regime, T < Tc, we develop a beyond semiclassical Hartree theory. We use this to characterise the stability boundary as a function of geometry. Interestingly, we find large beyond semiclassical effects above Tc for prolate trapping geometries. We characterise thermal effects on biconcave condensate states. \n \nPart II: Rotons and Fluctuations in a Trapped Dipolar Condensate: To study density fluctuations we implement a numerical scheme to solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the Bogoliubov de Gennes equations. We find that the phonon and roton gases spatially separate and we characterise the role of the anomalous density on the density fluctuations of the thermally activated rotons. We develop a numerical scheme that calculates number fluctuations within cells of various shapes and sizes, and find a strong peak in the fluctuations when the cell size is around half the roton wavelength, which should be detectable by current experiments. By tailoring the cell shape we predict that experiments should be able to detect the effects of individual roton modes. \nFor the study of zero temperature fluctuations we deploy the Gross-Pitaevskii and Bogoliubov de Gennes equations to calculate the dynamic and static structure factors for a highly oblate BEC. We find a clear signature of the roton gas dispersion relation within the structure factors. This signature should be detectible in current experiments using Bragg spectroscopy.
Recent experimental advances in creating stable dipolar bosonic systems, including polar molecules with large electric dipole moments, have led to vigorous theoretical activities. Recent reporting of observation of roton feature in dipolar erbium has provided added impetus to theoretical and experimental work. Here we discuss our mean-field theory work on 2D and quasi-2D dipolar bosons with dipoles oriented at an angle to the direction perpendicular to the confining 2D plane, i.e. for {\it non-zero tilt angles}. Using Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, we present results on a number of T=0 properties of both 2D and quasi-2D systems, such as excitation spectra, structure functions, sound velocities, quantum depletion, etc. We explore instabilities at varying tilt angle, density and dipolar coupling. We map out phase diagrams as a function of tilt angle, dipole strength and density. We find the development of maxon-roton behavior leading to roton instabilities at large densities for small tilt angles, and at low densities for large tilt angles. The behavior is anisotropic in k-space; accordingly the roton instabilities occur first in the ky direction, suggestive of inhomogeneity and stripe phase, with density mode becoming soft in the y-direction. Beyond a critical tilt angle, at any density, the dipolar system collapses owing to a phonon instability. We discuss similarities and differences between the properties of 2D and quasi-2D dipolar systems at non-zero tilt angles.
In a recent experiment, it has been found that by tuning the interaction strength of a dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensate confined in a quasi-1D geometry orthogonal to the polarization direction, the roton gap vanishes, while density modulations are induced in the trapped gas. This suggests the possibility of realizing a supersolid in dipolar quantum gases. Inspired by this experiment, we simulate a dipolar BEC in a ring geometry by confining the dipoles in a ”tube” orthogonal to the polarization direction and enforcing periodic boundary conditions. Our calculations are based on a Density Functional approach where the total energy density functional includes the beyond-mean-field correction of Lee-Huang-Yang, which partially accounts for quantum fluctuations. We study the ground state properties of the system by evolving in imaginary time the EulerLagrange equation derived from the variational principle. We also study the excitation spectrum of the system by solving the corresponding Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. We find that the calculated excitation spectrum shows indeed a roton minimum, and the roton gap can become vanishingly small by reducing the effective scattering length. As the roton gap disappears, we find that the system spontaneously develops in its ground-state a periodic structure formed by denser clusters of atomic dipoles immersed in a dilute superfluid background. We find that this structure shows the hallmarks of a supersolid system, i.e. (i) a finite non-classical translational inertia and (ii) the appearance, besides the phonon mode, of the Nambu-Goldstone gapless mode corresponding to fluctuations in the phase, and related to the spontaneous breaking of the gauge symmetry.
We investigate the influence of quantum fluctuations upon dipolar Bose gases by means of the Bogoliubov--de Gennes theory. Thereby, we make use of the local density approximation to evaluate the dipolar exchange interaction between the condensate and the excited particles. This allows to obtain the Bogoliubov spectrum analytically in the limit of large particle numbers. After discussing the condensate depletion and the ground-state energy correction, we derive quantum-corrected equations of motion for harmonically trapped dipolar Bose gases by using superfluid hydrodynamics. These equations are subsequently applied to analyze the equilibrium configuration, the low-lying oscillation frequencies, and the time-of-flight dynamics. We find that both atomic magnetic and molecular electric dipolar systems offer promising scenarios for detecting beyond mean-field effects.
Recent experimental advances in creating stable dipolar systems, including polar molecules with large electric dipole moments, have led to vigorous theoretical activities. Here we discuss our work on homogeneous 2D dipolar bosons with dipoles oriented at an angle to the direction perpendicular to the confining 2D plane, i.e. for non-zero tilt angles. Using Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations, we obtain T=0 excitation spectrum of the dipolar Bose gas, and explore instabilities at varying tilt angle, density and dipolar coupling. We map out a phase diagram a function of tilt angle, dipole strength and density. We find the development of maxon-roton behavior leading to roton instabilities at large densities for small tilt angles, and at low densities for large tilt angles. The behavior is anisotropic in k-space; accordingly the roton instabilities occur in the k y direction, suggestive of inhomogeneity and stripe phase, with density mode becoming soft in the y direction. Our results compare favorably with existing Quantum Monte Carlo calculations for non-zero tilt angles.
We present an analytic Bogoliubov description of a Bose-Einstein condensate of polar molecules trapped in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry and interacting via internal state-dependent dipole-dipole interactions. We derive the mean-field ground-state energy functional, and we derive analytic expressions for the dispersion relations, Bogoliubov amplitudes, and static structure factors. This method can be applied to any homogeneous, two-component system with linear coupling and direct, momentum-dependent interactions. The properties of the mean-field ground state, including polarization and stability, are investigated, and we identify three distinct instabilities: a density-wave rotonization that occurs when the gas is fully polarized, a spin-wave rotonization that occurs near zero polarization, and a mixed instability at intermediate fields. The nature of these instabilities is clarified by means of the real-space density-density correlation functions, which characterize the spontaneous fluctuations of the ground state, and the momentum-space structure factors, which characterize the response of the system to external perturbations. We find that the gas is susceptible to both density-wave and spin-wave responses in the polarized limit but only a spin-wave response in the zero-polarization limit. These results are relevant for experiments with rigid rotor molecules such as RbCs, $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-doublet molecules such as ThO that have an anomalously small zero-field splitting, and doublet-$\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}$ molecules such as SrF where two low-lying opposite-parity states can be tuned to zero splitting by an external magnetic field.