The interplay between spontaneously broken gauge symmetries and Bose–Einstein condensation has long been controversially discussed in science, since the equations of motion are invariant under phase transformations. Within the present model, it is illustrated that spontaneous symmetry breaking appears as a non-local process in position space, but within disjoint subspaces of the underlying Hilbert space. Numerical simulations show that it is the symmetry of the relative phase distribution between condensate and non-condensate quantum fields which is spontaneously broken when passing the critical temperature for Bose–Einstein condensation. Since the total number of gas particles remains constant over time, the global U(1)-gauge symmetry of the system is preserved.
The interplay between spontaneously broken gauge symmetries and Bose–Einstein condensation has long been controversially discussed in science, since the equations of motion are invariant under phase transformations. Within the present model, it is illustrated that spontaneous symmetry breaking appears as a non-local process in position space, but within disjoint subspaces of the underlying Hilbert space. Numerical simulations show that it is the symmetry of the relative phase distribution between condensate and non-condensate quantum fields which is spontaneously broken when passing the critical temperature for Bose–Einstein condensation. Since the total number of gas particles remains constant over time, the global U(1)-gauge symmetry of the system is preserved.
The interplay between spontaneously broken gauge symmetries and Bose-Einstein condensation has long been controversially discussed in science, since the equation of motions are invariant under phase transformations. Within the present model it is illustrated that spontaneous symmetry breaking appears as a non-local process in position space, but within disjoint subspaces of the underlying Hilbert space. Numerical simulations show that it is the symmetry of the relative phase distribution between condensate and non-condensate quantum fields which is spontaneously broken when passing the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation. Since the total number of gas particles remains constant over time, the global U(1)-gauge symmetry of the system is preserved.
The theory of non-interacting Bose gases is supplemented by a numerical quantum field description with a two-dimensional non-local order parameter that allows the modeling of wave-like atomic correlations and interference effects in the limit of low atomic densities. From the present model, it is possible to explain symmetry aspects of non-interacting and very weakly interacting Bose gases in the limit of fluctuating particle numbers, like the forward propagation of time and the relation to the breaking and preservation of phase gauge symmetry in solids. In the present formalism, the propagation of one-directional time arises from the pre-defined and equivalent convergence of independent quantum fields towards the Boltzmann equilibrium, and it is shown that Glauber coherent states are related to the definition of the quantized field. Coherently coupling condensate and non-condensate parts as a direct consequence of the increasing quantum coherence time between the different quantum field components in the Bose gas from cooling to below the critical temperature, the present model describes symmetry breaking, which is originally known from the definition of a specific gauge field from Elitzur's theorem for local gauge fields, as a global physical rather than a purely formal mathematical process.
Due to high current interest to Bose-Einstein condensation, the related topics, such as spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking, ergodic decomposition, and particle fluctuations, are intensively discussed in literature. These discussions, unfortunately, involve quite a number of controversies and confusions. The goal of the present brief survey is to clarify some of these confusions, concentrating on the principal points, such as the relationship between the conditions of Bose-Einstein condensation, the Bogolubov method of quasiaverages, spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking, ergodic decomposition, the presumed existence of nonthermodynamic particle fluctuations leading to the so-called ``grand canonical catastrophe", and the requirements for system stability.
Abstract Due to high current interest to Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC), the related topics, such as spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking, ergodic decomposition, and particle fluctuations, are intensively discussed in literature. These discussions, unfortunately, involve quite a number of controversies and confusions. The goal of the present brief survey is to clarify some of these confusions, concentrating on the principal points, such as the relationship between the conditions of BEC, the Bogolubov method of quasiaverages, spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking, ergodic decomposition, the presumed existence of nonthermodynamic particle fluctuations leading to the so-called ‘grand canonical catastrophe’, and the requirements for system stability.
Based on Bogoliubov's truncated Hamiltonian H B for a weakly interacting Bose system, and adding a U(1) symmetry breaking term V 1/2 (λ a 0 +λ * a 0 + ) to H B , we show by using the coherent state theory and the mean-field approximation rather than the c-number approximations, that the Bose–Einstein condensation(BEC) occurs if and only if the U(1) symmetry of the system is spontaneously broken. The real ground state energy and the justification of the Bogoliubov c-number substitution are given by solving the Schrödinger eigenvalue equation and using the self-consistent condition.
Abstract Particle fluctuations in systems, exhibiting Bose–Einstein condensation, are reviewed in order to clarify the basic points that attract high interest and often confront misunderstanding. It is explained that the so-called ‘grand canonical catastrophe’, claiming the occurrence of catastrophic particle fluctuations in the condensed phase, treated by grand canonical ensemble, does not exist. What exists is the incorrect use of the grand canonical ensemble, where gauge symmetry is not broken, while the correct description of the condensed phase necessarily requires gauge symmetry breaking. The ideal Bose gas has no catastrophic condensate fluctuations, and moreover there are no condensate fluctuations at all, as soon as gauge symmetry is broken. However it does have anomalous fluctuations of uncondensed particles, which implies its instability. For interacting particles, there are no condensate fluctuations, as soon as gauge symmetry is broken, and anomalous fluctuations of uncondensed particles, when correctly calculated, do not appear. Particle fluctuations in the systems of trapped atoms are discussed. Canonical ensemble and grand canonical ensemble with broken gauge symmetry are equivalent with respect to the number of particle scaling.