We have achieved a full implementation of the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation for a three-dimensional trapped Bose gas at finite temperature. Our work advances previous applications of this theory, which have only included growth processes, by implementing number-conserving scattering processes. We evaluate an analytic expression for the coefficient of the scattering term and compare it to that of the growth term in the experimental regime, showing that the two coefficients are comparable in size. We give an overview of the numerical implementation of the deterministic and stochastic terms for the scattering process, and use simulations of a condensate excited into a large amplitude breathing mode oscillation to characterize the importance of scattering and growth processes in an experimentally accessible regime. We find that in such nonequilibrium regimes the scattering can dominate over the growth, leading to qualitatively different system dynamics. In particular, the scattering causes the system to rapidly reach thermal equilibrium without greatly depleting the condensate, suggesting that it provides a highly coherent energy-transfer mechanism.
We have achieved a full implementation of the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation for a three-dimensional trapped Bose gas at finite temperature. Our work advances previous applications of this theory, which have only included growth processes, by implementing number-conserving scattering processes. We evaluate an analytic expression for the coefficient of the scattering term and compare it to that of the growth term in the experimental regime, showing that the two coefficients are comparable in size. We give an overview of the numerical implementation of the deterministic and stochastic terms for the scattering process, and use simulations of a condensate excited into a large amplitude breathing mode oscillation to characterize the importance of scattering and growth processes in an experimentally accessible regime. We find that in such nonequilibrium regimes the scattering can dominate over the growth, leading to qualitatively different system dynamics. In particular, the scattering causes the system to rapidly reach thermal equilibrium without greatly depleting the condensate, suggesting that it provides a highly coherent energy-transfer mechanism.
Providing a complete description of dissipative superfluid dynamics is one of the major challenges of many-body quantum field theory. In this thesis we make a fundamental step towards this goal by implementing the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation (SPGPE) in complete form for the first time. The SPGPE is a high-temperature theory of Bose-Einstein condensate dynamics, providing a classical-field description of a low-energy subspace in contact with a thermal reservoir. The reservoir interaction terms account for dissipation and noise from thermal interactions, and arise from two distinct processes described as number-damping and energy-damping. This work advances previous applications of the SPGPE theory, which have only included number-damping processes, by implementing the energy-damping processes. We describe the properties of the deterministic and noise terms corresponding to the energy-damping process, and develop a novel algorithm to accurately and efficiently evaluate the energy-damping terms in the SPGPE. We apply the SPGPE to a range of experimentally accessible systems, considering both non-equilibrium and quasi-equilibrium dynamics. We model the experiment of Neely et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 235301 (2013)], where stirring of a toroidally trapped Bose-Einstein condensate generates a disordered array of quantum vortices that decay, via thermal dissipation, to form a macroscopic persistent current. We perform numerical simulations of the experiment using the number-damping SPGPE and ab initio determined reservoir parameters. We quantitatively reproduce both the formation time and size of the persistent current, as measured in the experiment. In the first application of the full SPGPE, we consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of a condensate excited into a large-amplitude breathing mode. We find that in such non-equilibrium regimes, the energy-damping dominates over the number-damping process, leading to qualitatively different system dynamics. In particular, energy damping causes the system to rapidly reach thermal equilibrium without greatly depleting the condensate, showing that energy damping provides a highly coherent dissipation mechanism. Finally, we apply the SPGPE to the quasi-equilibrium dynamics of single-vortex decay. Energy-damping processes have previously been neglected for this system. SPGPE simulations show that in fact energy-damping has a dominant effect on the lifetime of a single vortex, with lifetimes less than half those predicted by the number-damping SPGPE. In contrast to the breathing mode decay, we observe little qualitative difference between the energy-damping and number-damping descriptions of vortex decay. Our findings show that while energy-damping processes are important to quantitatively describe quasi-equilibrium dynamics, the system behavior may be described by the number-damping SPGPE with a suitably modified dissipation rate.
We present a method for solving the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation (SPGPE) for a three-dimensional weakly interacting Bose gas in a harmonic-oscillator trapping potential. The SPGPE contains the challenge of both accurately evolving all modes in the low-energy classical region of the system, and evaluating terms from the number-conserving scattering reservoir process. We give an accurate and efficient procedure for evaluating the scattering terms using a Hermite-polynomial based spectral-Galerkin representation, which allows us to precisely implement the low-energy mode restriction. Stochastic integration is performed using the weak semi-implicit Euler method. We extensively characterize the accuracy of our method, finding a faster-than-expected rate of stochastic convergence. Physical consistency of the algorithm is demonstrated by considering thermalization of initially random states.
We provide a derivation of a more accurate version of the stochastic Gross–Pitaevskii equation, as introduced by Gardiner et al ( 2002 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 35 1555 ). This derivation does not rely on the concept of local energy and momentum conservation and is based on a quasiclassical Wigner function representation of a 'high temperature' master equation for a Bose gas, which includes only modes below an energy cut-off E R that are sufficiently highly occupied (the condensate band). The modes above this cut-off (the non-condensate band) are treated as being essentially thermalized. The interaction between these two bands, known as growth and scattering processes, provides noise and damping terms in the equation of motion for the condensate band, which we call the stochastic Gross–Pitaevskii equation. This approach is distinguished by the control of the approximations made in its derivation and by the feasibility of its numerical implementation.
We provide a derivation of a more accurate version of the stochastic Gross– Pitaevskii equation, as introduced by Gardiner et al (2002 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 35 1555). This derivation does not rely on the concept of local energy and momentum conservation and is based on a quasiclassical Wigner function representation of a ‘high temperature ’ master equation for a Bose gas, which includes only modes below an energy cut-off ER that are sufficiently highly occupied (the condensate band). The modes above this cut-off (the non-condensate band) are treated as being essentially thermalized. The interaction between these two bands, known as growth and scattering processes, provides noise and damping terms in the equation of motion for the condensate band, which we call the stochastic Gross–Pitaevskii equation. This approach is distinguished by the control of the approximations made in its derivation and by the feasibility of its numerical implementation. 1.
We present reduced-dimensional stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equations describing regimes of confinement and temperature where a one-dimensional (1D) or 2D superfluid is immersed in a 3D thermal cloud. The projection formalism provides both a formally rigorous and physically natural way to effect the dimensional reduction. The 3D form of the number-damping (growth) terms is unchanged by the dimensional reduction. Projection of the energy-damping (scattering) terms leads to modified stochastic equations of motion describing energy exchange with the thermal reservoir. The regime of validity of the dimensional reduction is investigated via variational analysis. For the 1D case, we validate our variational treatment by comparing numerical simulations of a trapped prolate system in three dimensions with the 1D theory and establish a consistent choice of cutoff for the 1D theory. We briefly discuss the scenario involving two components with different degeneracy, suggesting that a wider regime of validity exists for systems in contact with a buffer-gas reservoir.
In this thesis, we apply the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation, using the formulation of Stoof, to the study of weakly interacting, finite temperature atomic Bose gases, both in and out of equilibrium. Explicitly maintaining the effects of phase and density fluctuations, this state-of-the-art method is well suited to the study of low dimensional Bose systems. As such, we consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of dark matter wave solitons, oscillating within harmonically trapped, one-dimensional phase-fluctuating condensates, through numerical simulations of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation. In treating the damping due to higher lying thermal modes of the system, we include the HartreeFock contribution of the equilibrium atomic density, which is a novel feature of our work. A stochastic approach is found to be essential in capturing the shot-to-shot variation in soliton trajectories observed experimentally. Neglecting stochastic effects, we find the well-known dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii equation to recover the average dynamics of the stochastic model, on retaining the microscopically justified form for the damping of this approach. Such a coupling is found to be necessary in modelling the dissipative nature of finite temperature soliton dynamics. Furthermore, we undertake a comparison between the finite temperature equilibrium state of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation, and that predicted within a number conserving Bogoliubov approach. Through a series of numerical experiments, we compare the equilibrium properties of a harmonically trapped Bose gas, considering our results in light of those of independent theoretical treatments, and additionally assessing the sensitivity of the numerical implementation of the former method to the numerical grid spacing. In the regime in which thermal effects dominate, the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii approach proves to be a more consistent means of generating such equilibrium states.