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arXiv:1301.4770 · Journal of Physics Condensed Matter

Kibble–Zurek mechanism in a trapped ferromagnetic Bose–Einstein condensate

Hiroki Saito, Yuki Kawaguchi, Masahito Ueda

Published Sep 11, 2013• 22 citations
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Abstract

Spontaneous spin vortex formation in a magnetic phase transition of a trapped spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated based on mean-field theory. In a harmonic trapping potential, an inhomogeneous atomic density leads to spatial variations of the critical point, magnetization time, and spin correlation length. The Kibble-Zurek phenomena are shown to emerge even in such inhomogeneous spinor condensates, when the quench of the quadratic Zeeman energy is fast enough. For slow quench, the magnetized region gradually expands from the center of the trap, pushing out spin vortices, which hinders the Kibble-Zurek mechanism from occurring. The case of a toroidal trapping potential is also discussed.

DOI
10.1088/0953-8984/25/40/404212

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Spontaneous spin vortex formation in a magnetic phase transition of a trapped spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate is investigated based on mean-field theory. In a harmonic trapping potential, an inhomogeneous atomic density leads to spatial variations of the critical point, magnetization time, and spin correlation length. The Kibble-Zurek phenomena are shown to emerge even in such inhomogeneous spinor condensates, when the quench of the quadratic Zeeman energy is fast enough. For slow quench, the magnetized region gradually expands from the center of the trap, pushing out spin vortices, which hinders the Kibble-Zurek mechanism from occurring. The case of a toroidal trapping potential is also discussed.
The Kibble–Zurek mechanism is applied to the spontaneous formation of vortices in a harmonically trapped thermal gas following a temperature quench through the critical value for Bose–Einstein condensation. Whereas in the homogeneous scenario, vortex nucleation is always expected, we show that it can be completely suppressed in the presence of the confinement potential whenever the speed of the spatial front undergoing condensation is lower than a threshold velocity. Otherwise, the interplay between the geometry and the causality leads to different scaling laws for the density of vortices as a function of the quench rate, as we also illustrate for the case of a toroidal trapping potential.
It is shown that spin vortices are created through the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in the quantum phase transition of a spin-1 ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate when the applied magnetic field is quenched to below a critical value. It is also shown that the spin correlation functions have finite correlation lengths, and that the magnetization at widely separated positions grows in random directions, resulting in spontaneous creation of spin vortices. We numerically confirm the scaling laws that the winding number of spin vortices is proportional to the square root of the length of a closed path and, for a slow quench, is proportional to ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\text{Q}}^{\ensuremath{-}1∕6}$ with ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\text{Q}}$ being the quench time. The relevance of spin conservation to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism is discussed.
The Kibble-Zurek mechanism is applied to the spontaneous formation of vortices in a harmonically trapped thermal gas following a temperature quench through the critical value for Bose-Einstein condensation. Whereas in the homogeneous scenario, vortex nucleation is always expected, we show that it can be completely suppressed in the presence of the confinement potential whenever the speed of the spatial front undergoing condensation is lower than a threshold velocity. Otherwise, the interplay between the geometry and the causality leads to different scaling laws for the density of vortices as a function of the quench rate, as we also illustrate for the case of a toroidal trapping potential. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
We investigate the universal dynamics of a continuous magnetic phase transition from a unmagnetized phase to a ferromagnetic phase in a spin-1 spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate. When the system approaches the critical point, the Landau critical velocity gradually decreases to zero and so the correlation length diverges. Therefore, during the slow passage through the critical point, ferromagnetic domains are spontaneously created according to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Through calculating the Bogoliubov excitations, we give the Landau critical velocity and the correlation length, from which we derive the Kibble-Zurek scalings. Furthermore, we numerically simulate the critical spatial-temporal dynamics of the bifurcation delay and spontaneous domain formation, and extract the universal scaling exponents. The numerical scalings extracted from the critical spatial-temporal dynamics are very consistent with the scalings derived from the correlation length.
We study the vortex nucleation dynamics in inhomogeneous atomic Bose gases quenched into a superfluid phase and investigate the dependence of the Kibble-Zurek (KZ) scaling exponent on the underlying trap configuration. For samples in a number of different inhomogeneous traps, we observe the characteristic power-law scaling of the vortex number with the thermal quench rate, as well as an enhanced vortex suppression in the outer regions with lower particle density, in agreement with the causality effect as encapsulated in the inhomogeneous Kibble-Zurek mechanism (IKZM). However, the measured KZ scaling exponents show significant differences from the theoretical estimates, and furthermore their trends as a function of the underlying trap configuration deviate from the IKZM prediction. We also investigate the early-time coarsening effect using a two-step quench protocol as proposed in a recent study and show that the interpretation of the measurement results without including the causality effect might be misleading. This paper provides a comprehensive study of vortex formation dynamics in quenched Bose gases confined in inhomogeneous trapping potentials and calls for a refined theoretical framework for quantitative understanding of the phase transition and defect formation processes in such inhomogeneous systems.
Atomic Bose-Einstein condensates confined to a dual-ring trap support Josephson vortices as topologically stable defects in the relative phase. We propose a test of the scaling laws for defect formation by quenching a Bose gas to degeneracy in this geometry. Stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii simulations reveal a -1/4 power-law scaling of defect number with quench time for fast quenches, consistent with the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. Slow quenches show stronger quench-time dependence that is explained by the stability properties of Josephson vortices, revealing the boundary of the Kibble-Zurek regime. Interference of the two atomic fields enables clear long-time measurement of stable defects and a direct test of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in Bose-Einstein condensation.