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arXiv:1306.2510 · Physical Review B

Universal behavior of two-dimensional bosonic gases at Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions

Giacomo Ceccarelli, Jacopo Nespolo, Andrea Pelissetto C, Ettore Vicari

Published Jul 30, 2013• 18 citations
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Abstract

We study the universal critical behavior of two-dimensional (2D) lattice bosonic gases at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition, which separates the low-temperature superfluid phase from the high-temperature normal phase. For this purpose, we perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the hard-core Bose-Hubbard (BH) model at zero chemical potential. We determine the critical temperature by using a matching method that relates finite-size data for the BH model with corresponding data computed in the classical $XY$ model. In this approach, the neglected scaling corrections decay as inverse powers of the lattice size $L$, and not as powers of $1/\mathrm{ln}L$, as in more standard approaches, making the estimate of the critical temperature much more reliable. Then, we consider the BH model in the presence of a trapping harmonic potential, and we verify the universality of the trap-size dependence at the BKT critical point. This issue is relevant for experiments with quasi-2D trapped cold atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.88.024517

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We study the universal critical behavior of two-dimensional (2D) lattice bosonic gases at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition, which separates the low-temperature superfluid phase from the high-temperature normal phase. For this purpose, we perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the hard-core Bose-Hubbard (BH) model at zero chemical potential. We determine the critical temperature by using a matching method that relates finite-size data for the BH model with corresponding data computed in the classical XYXYXY model. In this approach, the neglected scaling corrections decay as inverse powers of the lattice size LLL, and not as powers of 1/lnL1/\mathrm{ln}L1/lnL, as in more standard approaches, making the estimate of the critical temperature much more reliable. Then, we consider the BH model in the presence of a trapping harmonic potential, and we verify the universality of the trap-size dependence at the BKT critical point. This issue is relevant for experiments with quasi-2D trapped cold atoms.
The physics in two-dimensional (2D) systems is very different from what we observe in three-dimensional (3D) systems. Thermal fluctuations in 2D systems are enhanced, and they prevent the conventional Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at non-zero temperatures by destroying the long-range order. However, a phase transition to a superfluid phase is still expected to occur in a 2D system along with an emergence of a quasi-long-range order, explained by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) mechanism. Within the BKT mechanism, a universal jump of the superfluid density in a 2D Bosonic system was theoretically predicted by Nelson and Kosterlitz, and was first observed in 2D \textsuperscript{4}He films by Bishop and Reppy. Recent experiments in trapped ultracold 2D Bose gas systems have shown signatures of the BKT transition, and its superfluidity. However, the universal jump in the superfluid density was not observed in these systems. Here we report the first observation of the universal jump in the superfluid density using an optically trapped ultracold 2D Bose gas. The measured superfluid phase space density at the BKT transition agrees well with the predicted value within our measurement uncertainty. Additionally, we measure the phase fluctuations in our density profiles to show that the BKT transition occurs first, followed by the BEC transition.
We analyze the results of a recent experiment with bosonic rubidium atoms harmonically confined in a quasi-two-dimensional (2D) geometry. In this experiment a well-defined critical point was identified, which separates the high-temperature normal state characterized by a single component density distribution, and the low-temperature state characterized by a bimodal density distribution and the emergence of high-contrast interference between independent 2D clouds. We first show that this transition cannot be explained in terms of conventional Bose–Einstein condensation of the trapped ideal Bose gas. Using the local density approximation (LDA), we then combine the mean-field (MF) Hartree–Fock theory with the prediction for the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) transition in an infinite uniform system. If the gas is treated as a strictly 2D system, the MF predictions for the spatial density profiles significantly deviate from those of a recent quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) analysis. However, when the residual thermal excitation of the strongly confined degree of freedom is taken into account, excellent agreement is reached between the MF and the QMC approaches. For the interaction strength corresponding to the experiment, we predict a strong correction to the critical atom number with respect to the ideal gas theory (factor ∼2). Quantitative agreement between theory and experiment is reached concerning the critical atom number if the predicted density profiles are used for temperature calibration.
We calculate the superfluid transition temperature of homogeneous interacting Bose gases in three and two spatial dimensions using large-scale path integral Monte Carlo simulations (with up to N=10;{5} particles). In 3D we investigate the limits of the universal critical behavior in terms of the scattering length alone by using different models for the interatomic potential. We find that this type of universality sets in at small values of the gas parameter na3 < or approximately 10(-4). This value is different from the estimate na3 < or approximately 10(-6) for the validity of the asymptotic expansion in the limit of vanishing na3. In 2D we study the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition of a gas with hard-core interactions. For this system we find good agreement with the classical lattice |psi|4 model up to very large densities. We also explain the origin of the existing discrepancy between previous studies of the same problem.
We simulate a trapped quasi-two-dimensional Bose gas using a classical field method. To interpret our results we identify the uniform Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) temperature TBKT{T}_{\text{BKT}}TBKT​ as where the system phase-space density satisfies a critical value. We observe that density fluctuations are suppressed in the system well above TBKT{T}_{\text{BKT}}TBKT​ when a quasicondensate forms as the first occurrence of degeneracy. At lower temperatures, but still above TBKT{T}_{\text{BKT}}TBKT​, we observe the development of appreciable coherence as a prominent finite-size effect, which manifests as bimodality in the momentum distribution of the system. At TBKT{T}_{\text{BKT}}TBKT​ algebraic decay of off-diagonal correlations occurs near the trap center with an exponent of 0.25, as expected for the uniform system. Our results characterize the low-temperature phase diagram for a trapped quasi-two-dimensional Bose gas and are consistent with observations made in recent experiments.
We investigate the critical properties of cold bosonic gases in three dimensions, confined by an external quadratic potential coupled to the particle density, and realistically described by the Bose-Hubbard (BH) model. The trapping potential is often included in experiments with cold atoms and modifies the critical finite-size scaling of the homogeneous system in a nontrivial way. The trap-size scaling (TSS) theory accounts for this effect through the exponent $\ensuremath{\theta}$. We perform extensive simulations of the BH model at the critical temperature, in the presence of harmonic traps. We find that the TSS predictions are universal once we account for the effective way in which the trap locally modifies the chemical potential $\ensuremath{\mu}$ of the system. The trap exponent for the BH model at $\ensuremath{\mu}=0$ is the one corresponding to an effective quartic potential. At positive $\ensuremath{\mu}$, evidence suggests that TSS breaks down sufficiently far from the center of the trap, as the system encounters an effective phase boundary.
We study the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a weakly interacting 2D quantum Bose gas using the concept of universality and numerical simulations of the classical $|\ensuremath{\psi}{|}^{4}$ model on a lattice. The critical density and chemical potential are given by relations ${n}_{c}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}(mT/2\ensuremath{\pi}{\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}^{2})\mathrm{ln}(\ensuremath{\xi}{\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}^{2}/mU)$ and ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{c}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}(mTU/\ensuremath{\pi}{\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}^{2})\mathrm{ln}({\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}{\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}^{2}/mU)$, where TTT is the temperature, mmm is the mass, and UUU is the effective interaction. The dimensionless constant $\ensuremath{\xi}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}380\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}3$ is very large and thus any quantitative analysis of the experimental data crucially depends on its value. For ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}$ our result is ${\ensuremath{\xi}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}13.2\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4$. We also report the study of the quasicondensate correlations at the critical point.