In this work I introduce a powerful analytical method to analyze states of non-equilibrium polariton Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). It is shown that the condensate wave functions carrying dark solitons and half-dark solitons can be expressed in terms of the natural parameters of the non-equilibrium system, i.e. the growth and decay rates and the interaction parameters. The derivation is based on a non-conservative Lagrangian formalism, which provides ordinary differential equations for the parameters of the dark soliton solutions in their dynamic environment. Explicit expressions for the stationary solution are stated, which significantly differ from those observed in atomic BEC. Subsequently the method is extended to spinor condensates, which yields ordinary differential equations for the parameters of half-dark solitons. Finally a stationary case with explicit expressions for half-dark solitons is presented as well.
In this work I introduce a powerful analytical method to analyze states of non-equilibrium polariton Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). It is shown that the condensate wave functions carrying dark solitons and half-dark solitons can be expressed in terms of the natural parameters of the non-equilibrium system, i.e. the growth and decay rates and the interaction parameters. The derivation is based on a non-conservative Lagrangian formalism, which provides ordinary differential equations for the parameters of the dark soliton solutions in their dynamic environment. Explicit expressions for the stationary solution are stated, which significantly differ from those observed in atomic BEC. Subsequently the method is extended to spinor condensates, which yields ordinary differential equations for the parameters of half-dark solitons. Finally a stationary case with explicit expressions for half-dark solitons is presented as well.
We theoretically demonstrate a mechanism for bright soliton generation in spinor non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensates made of atoms or quasi-particles such as polaritons in semiconductor microcavities. We give analytical expressions for bright (half) solitons as minimizing functions of a generalized non-conservative Lagrangian elucidating the unique features of inter and intra-competition in non-equilibrium systems. The analytical results are supported by a detailed numerical analysis that further shows the rich soliton dynamics inferred by their instability and mutual cross-interactions.
Non-equilibrium polariton condensates entangle properties of lasers, atomic Bose- Einstein condensates (BEC) and semiconductor physics. They provide a great variety of physical phenomena while maintaining a simple theoretical description. Among those phenomena are nonlinear excitations such as solitons or spontaneous spin bifurcations. In this paper I first present a short overview on the theoretical basis of polaritons. Then starting from a scenario of excitation generation in equilibrium BEC I turn to corresponding phenomenona in polariton condensates such as dark soliton formation. Later the spin sensitive phenomena such as nonequilibrium bright solitons and half-bright solitons in semiconductor microcavities are discussed. Theoretically all the considered scenarios are described by partial differential equations (PDEs) and coupled systems thereof. The system of PDEs defines a so called condensate wave function, which completely describes the experimental relevant aspects of the physical system in a certain parameter regime where condensation occurs. The developed theories enables us particularly to make a variety of statements about excitations such as solitons and half-solitons in spinor systems forming within a non-equilibrium condensate. It turns out that by those means we can elucidate in particular the experimental implementation of a coherent superposition analog in a spin sensitive setting forming a macroscopic QUBIT within the semiconductor microcavity at temperatures in the Kelvin range.
Abstract By adopting a mean-field Gross–Pitaevskii description of spinor polariton Bose–Einstein condensates under nonresonant pumping, we investigate the static and dynamical properties of dark–bright (DB) solitons. We derive the equation of motion for the center of mass of the DB solitons’ center analytically by using the Hamiltonian approach. The resulting equation captures how the combination of the open-dissipative character and the spin degrees of freedom of a polariton Bose–Einstein condensate affects the properties of DB solitons, i.e. DB solitons relax by blending with the background at a finite time. In this case, we also determine the lifetime of the DB solitons. Further numerical solutions of the modified dissipative two-component Gross–Pitaevskii equations are in excellent agreement with the analytical results. In the presence of the Langevin noise, we demonstrate that the DB solitons can still propagate for a long time, which is sufficient for their experimental observations within current facilities.
Spin mixing induced dynamics of spinor solitons in F=1 Bose Einstein condensates
We explore soliton interactions in a homogeneous spinor F=1 Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) in the presence of a magnetic field, focusing on dark bright dark and bright dark bright configurations. We investigate how these interactions depend on the phase differences among bright solitons and their influence during the dynamics. Our findings align with prior non spinor results, i.e., repulsion among in phase bright solitons and attraction among out of phase pairs in self repulsive atomic BECs. The potential bright soliton attraction, added to the short range repulsion of dark dark soliton interactions, can lead to bound states. However, we find that these bound states break in the presence of spinor interactions due to the particle exchange dynamics between the hyperfine states of the components. Additonally, we develop an effective classical model to describe the soliton dynamics, using a Lagrangian approach. The accuracy of the model is tested by comparing it against numerical simulations. Our results suggest that the proposed model captures the essential features of soliton behavior in the presence of spin interactions, and provides congruent soliton trajectories and interspecies particle exchange dynamics in most of the cases.
This thesis examines two aspects of the non-equilibrium dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). Our particular interests are the relaxation of near-integrable systems, and the inter-particle correlations present in BECs, both in equilibrium and following an abrupt change in the Hamiltonian. In the first part of this thesis we investigate the stability of solitary wave solutions to a system of two coupled one-dimensional non-linear Schrodinger equations (CNLSE). This system has an integrable point known as the Manakov[1] model which has analytic dark-bright soliton solutions[2]. We break the integrability of this model by varying the inter-species interaction strength, and employ variational and numerical methods in order to find dark-bright solitary wave solutions, away from the integrable point. The time evolution of these states is calculated via numerical integration of the CNLSE, which allows us to assess the stability of these solutions in isolation and to quantify their robustness against collisions with a dark soliton. We find that there is a broad region of the parameter space in which solutions for black-bright (stationary) solitary waves can be found. In this domain, the integrability breaking is revealed only during collisions. Prior to a collision, the numerical solutions are indistinguishable from true solitons, however, the collisional stability of these solitary waves is significantly affected by the extent to which integrability is broken. We find that there is a smooth transition between the non-dispersive particle-like nature of soliton interactions for integrable systems, and the destructive collisions which take place when the system is perturbed far from the integrable point. In the case of moving (grey-bright) solitary waves, we find a more restricted region of the parameter space which admits solitary wave solutions. In this domain we are able to find approximately stable solitary wave solutions using a variational ansatz. The collisional stability of these grey-bright solitary waves is also found to depend upon the extent to which integrability is broken. We conclude that the observation of stable, long-lived dark-bright solitary waves is not sufficient to indicate near-integrability of the two-component system. However, near-integrability may inferred if dark-bright solitary waves are observed to survive multiple collisions. These results are not only of theoretical interest, but may also inform future experiments which explore the behaviour of solitary waves in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates. Following this we investigate the properties of magnetic solitary wave solutions to the CNLSE. We find that the analytic ‘magnetic soliton’ solutions derived in reference [3] are dynamically unstable and relax to non-stationary magnetic solitary wave states over a short timescale. We investigate the collisional dynamics of these magnetic solitary waves and find that these excitations are remarkably robust. In the second part of this thesis we calculate the fluctuations in the number difference between two sub-regions of a Bose-Einstein condensate. This study is motivated by recent experiments performed by the Truscott group at the Australian National University (ANU), which indicate sub- Poissonian fluctuations even for condensates with large thermal depletion. This result cannot easily be reconciled with existing literature, which predicts strongly super-Poissonian fluctuations below the critical temperature (Tc). We develop one-dimensional, and three-dimensional, models to describe these experiments and employ the Bogoliubov formalism to explore the quantum fluctuations of the condensate, which have not previously been studied in detail. We calculate the relative number fluctuations between two halves of the condensate, and also between multiple pairs of spatial bins. For harmonically confined condensates at zero temperature, quantum correlations result in a suppression of the relative number fluctuations between the two halves of the condensate below the shot-noise level. However, the presence of even a small thermal component results in strongly super-Poissonian fluctuations below Tc; this is in agreement with the existing theoretical and experimental results. In addition, we find that the fluctuations of the harmonically confined condensate are non-uniform, with the relative number fluctuations being peaked towards the edges of the condensate. The recent studies of the Truscott group measure the fluctuations after free expansion. We therefore calculate the propagation of correlations following a sudden removal of the harmonic confinement. We find that free expansion results in a strong decrease in the relative number fluctuations. Condensates which exhibit super-Poissonian fluctuations when harmonically confined may therefore display number- squeezing after expansion. A second set of experiments by the Truscott group measured the density fluctuations present in small ‘atom laser’ pulses of atoms out-coupled from their BEC. We also model this procedure and find that immediately after the out-coupling process, the number fluctuations of the out-coupled atomic pulse are approximately Poissonian, irrespective of the correlations present in the atomic reservoir. However, the competing effects of interactions between the atomic pulse and the condensate reservoir, and free expansion of the pulse after out-coupling, can result in the measured fluctuations being either number squeezed or super-Poissonian. Our results will guide future experiments planned by the Truscott group.
In the present contribution, we explore a host of different stationary states, namely dark-bright solitons and their lattices, that arise in the context of multicomponent atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. The latter are modeled by systems of coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations with general interaction (nonlinearity) coefficients gij. It is found that in some particular parameter ranges such solutions can be obtained in analytical form, however, numerically they are computed as existing in a far wider parametric range. Many features of the solutions under study, such as their analytical form without the trap or the stability and dynamical properties of one dark-bright soliton even in the presence of the trap are obtained analytically and corroborated numerically. Additional features, such as the stability of soliton lattice homogeneous states or their existence and stability in the presence of the trap, are examined numerically.