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arXiv:1304.3605 · Physical Review Letters

Fingerprinting Rotons in a Dipolar Condensate: Super-Poissonian Peak in the Atom-Number Fluctuations

R. N. Bisset, P. B. Blakie

Published Jun 26, 2013• 40 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate that measurements of atom-number fluctuations in a trapped dipolar condensate can reveal the presence of the elusive roton excitation. The key signature is a super-Poissonian peak in the fluctuations as the size of the measurement cell is varied, with the maximum occurring when the size is comparable to the roton wavelength. The magnitude of this roton feature is enhanced with temperature. The variation in fluctuations across the condensate demonstrates that the roton excitations are effectively confined to propagate in the densest central region, realizing a density trapped roton gas. While our main results are based on full numerical solutions of the mean-field equations, we also develop and validate a simple local density theory. Finally, we consider fluctuations measured within a washer-shaped cell which filters out the contribution of modes with nonzero angular momentum and provides a signal sensitive to individual roton modes.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.110.265302

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We demonstrate that measurements of atom-number fluctuations in a trapped dipolar condensate can reveal the presence of the elusive roton excitation. The key signature is a super-Poissonian peak in the fluctuations as the size of the measurement cell is varied, with the maximum occurring when the size is comparable to the roton wavelength. The magnitude of this roton feature is enhanced with temperature. The variation in fluctuations across the condensate demonstrates that the roton excitations are effectively confined to propagate in the densest central region, realizing a density trapped roton gas. While our main results are based on full numerical solutions of the mean-field equations, we also develop and validate a simple local density theory. Finally, we consider fluctuations measured within a washer-shaped cell which filters out the contribution of modes with nonzero angular momentum and provides a signal sensitive to individual roton modes.
We consider the noncondensate density and density fluctuations of a trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate, focusing on the regime where a rotonlike excitation spectrum develops. Our results show that a characteristic peak in the noncondensate density occurs at trap center due to the rotons. In this regime we also find that the anomalous density becomes positive and peaked, giving rise to enhanced density fluctuations. We calculate the noncondensate density in momentum space and show that a small momentum halo is associated with the roton excitations.
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.
We consider the fluctuations in atom number that occur within finite-sized measurement cells in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate. These approximate the fluctuation measurements made in current experiments with finite-resolution in situ imaging. A numerical scheme is developed to calculate these fluctuations using the quasiparticle modes of a cylindrically symmetric three-dimensionally trapped condensate with either contact or dipole-dipole interactions. We use this scheme to study the properties of a pancake-shaped condensate using cylindrical cells. The extension of the theory to washer-shaped cells with azimuthal weighting is made and used to discriminate between the low-energy roton modes in a dipolar condensate according to their projection of angular momentum. Our results are based on the Bogoliubov approach valid for zero and small finite temperatures.
We observe signatures of radial and angular roton excitations around a droplet crystallization transition in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates. In situ measurements are used to characterize the density fluctuations near this transition. The static structure factor is extracted and used to identify the radial and angular roton excitations by their characteristic symmetries. These fluctuations peak as a function of the interaction strength indicating the crystallization transition of the system. We compare our observations to a theoretically calculated excitation spectrum allowing us to connect the crystallization mechanism with the softening of the angular roton modes.
Roton excitations constitute a key feature of dipolar gases, connecting these gases with superfluid helium. We show that the density dependence of the roton minimum results in a spatial roton confinement, particularly relevant in pancake dipolar condensates with large aspect ratios. We show that roton confinement plays a crucial role in the dynamics after roton instability, and that arresting the instability may create a trapped roton gas revealed by confined density modulations. We discuss the local susceptibility against density perturbations, which we illustrate for the case of vortices. Roton confinement is expected to play a key role in experiments.
We consider the quasiparticle excitations of a trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. By mapping these excitations onto linear and angular momentum we show that the roton modes are clearly revealed as discrete fingers in parameter space, whereas the other modes form a smooth surface. We examine the properties of the roton modes and characterize how they change with the dipole interaction strength. We demonstrate how the application of a perturbing potential can be used to engineer angular rotons, i.e., allowing us to controllably select modes of nonzero projection of angular momentum to become the lowest energy rotons.