In a spinor Bose-Einstein gas, the non-zero hyperfine spin of the gas becomes an accessible degree of freedom. At low temperature, such a gas shows both magnetic and superfluid order, and undergoes both density and spin dynamics. These lecture notes present a general overview of the properties of spinor Bose-Einstein gases. The notes are divided in five sections. In the first, we summarize basic properties of multi-component quantum fluids, focusing on the specific case of spinor Bose-Einstein gases and the role of rotational symmetry in defining their properties. Second, we consider the magnetic state of a spinor Bose-Einstein gas, highlighting effects of thermodynamics and Bose-Einstein statistics and also of spin-dependent interactions between atoms. In the third section, we discuss methods for measuring the properties of magnetically ordered quantum gases and present newly developed schemes for spin-dependent imaging. We then discuss the dynamics of spin mixing in which the spin composition of the gas evolves through the spin-dependent interactions within the gas. We discuss spin mixing first from a microscopic perspective, and then advance to discussing collective and beyond-mean-field dynamics. The fifth section reviews recent studies of the magnetic excitations of quantum-degenerate spinor Bose gases. We conclude with some perspectives on future directions for research.
In a spinor Bose-Einstein gas, the non-zero hyperfine spin of the gas becomes an accessible degree of freedom. At low temperature, such a gas shows both magnetic and superfluid order, and undergoes both density and spin dynamics. These lecture notes present a general overview of the properties of spinor Bose-Einstein gases. The notes are divided in five sections. In the first, we summarize basic properties of multi-component quantum fluids, focusing on the specific case of spinor Bose-Einstein gases and the role of rotational symmetry in defining their properties. Second, we consider the magnetic state of a spinor Bose-Einstein gas, highlighting effects of thermodynamics and Bose-Einstein statistics and also of spin-dependent interactions between atoms. In the third section, we discuss methods for measuring the properties of magnetically ordered quantum gases and present newly developed schemes for spin-dependent imaging. We then discuss the dynamics of spin mixing in which the spin composition of the gas evolves through the spin-dependent interactions within the gas. We discuss spin mixing first from a microscopic perspective, and then advance to discussing collective and beyond-mean-field dynamics. The fifth section reviews recent studies of the magnetic excitations of quantum-degenerate spinor Bose gases. We conclude with some perspectives on future directions for research.
Spinor Bose gases form a family of quantum fluids manifesting both magnetic order and superfluidity. This article reviews experimental and theoretical progress in understanding the static and dynamic properties of these fluids. The connection between system properties and the rotational symmetry properties of the atomic states and their interactions are investigated. Following a review of the experimental techniques used for characterizing spinor gases, their mean-field and many-body ground states, both in isolation and under the application of symmetry-breaking external fields, are discussed. These states serve as the starting point for understanding low-energy dynamics, spin textures, and topological defects, effects of magnetic-dipole interactions, and various nonequilibrium collective spin-mixing phenomena. The paper aims to form connections and establish coherence among the vast range of works on spinor Bose gases, so as to point to open questions and future research opportunities.
Spinor Bose gases form a family of quantum fluids manifesting both magnetic order and superfluidity. This article reviews experimental and theoretical progress in understanding the static and dynamic properties of these fluids. The connection between system properties and the rotational symmetry properties of the atomic states and their interactions are investigated. Following a review of the experimental techniques used for characterizing spinor gases, their mean-field and many-body ground states, both in isolation and under the application of symmetry-breaking external fields, are discussed. These states serve as the starting point for understanding low-energy dynamics, spin textures and topological defects, effects of magnetic dipole interactions, and various non-equilibrium collective spin-mixing phenomena. The paper aims to form connections and establish coherence among the vast range of works on spinor Bose gases, so as to point to open questions and future research opportunities.
For many years, 4He typified Bose-Einstein superfluids, but recent advances in dilute ultra-cold alkali-metal gases have provided new neutral superfluids that are particularly tractable because the system is dilute. This chapter starts with a brief review of the physics of superfluid 4He, followed by the basic ideas of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), first for an ideal Bose gas and then considering the effect of interparticle interactions, including time-dependent phenomena. Extensions to more exotic condensates include magnetic dipolar gases, mixtures of two components, and spinor condensates that require a focused infrared laser for trapping of all the various hyperfine magnetic states in a particular hyperfine F manifold of mF states. With an applied rotation, the trapped BECs nucleate quantized vortices. Recent theory and experiment have shown that laser coupling fields can mimic the effect of rotation. The resulting synthetic gauge fields have produced vortices in a nonrotating condensate.
The achievement in cooling alkali atomic gases, such as 87Rb, 23Na and 7Li, to quantum degeneracy opens up a way to study magnetism in spinor bosons, because these constituent atoms usually have a hyperfine spin degree of freedom. This article reviews several basic problems related to the ferromagnetic phase transition in spinor atomic Bose gases from a theoretical perspective. After a brief discussion on various possible origins of the ferromagnetic interaction, the phase diagram of the ferromagnetically coupled spinor bosons is investigated. It is found that the ferromagnetic transition occurs always above Bose-Einstein condensation and the Bose condensate is fully polarized. The low-lying collective excitations of the spinor condensate, including spin and density modes, are discussed. The spectrum of the density mode is of the Bogliubov form and the spin wave spectrum has a k2-formed dispersion relation at long wavelengths. The spin-wave stiffness coefficient contains contribut
Selected topics on spinor-dipolar aspects of Bose-Einstein condensation are overviewed. Spinor aspects include spin correlations, fragmentation, dynamical symmetries, and quantum mass acquisition. Dipolar aspects include magnetostriction, d-wave collapse, roton-maxon spectrum, supersolidity, and ferrofluidity. Finally, spinor-dipolar aspects concern the Einstein–de Haas effect and spontaneous mass and spin currents in the ground state. Introduction Bose-Einstein condensation is a phenomenon in which a macroscopic number of particles occupy the same single-particle state as a consequence of symmetrization of a many-body wave function and thereby quantum effects are amplified to the macroscopic level. The amplified single-particle state serves as a complex order parameter whose phase behaves as an emergent thermodynamic quantity, with its temporal and spatial variations giving the chemical potential and the superfluid velocity, respectively. If the interparticle interaction is repulsive, a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) acquires stability against excitations out of the condensate because they would cost the Fock exchange energy. This rigidity of the order parameter or the condensate wave function endows a BEC with several remarkable transport properties which are collectively known as superfluidity. In particular, the superfluid fraction can be 100% at zero temperature even though the condensate fraction is depleted due to interparticle interactions. Interparticle interactions also make excited particles phase-locked to the condensate, leading to Bogoliubov quasiparticles, which are the manifestation of phase-coherent particle– hole excitations. When constituent particles have spin degrees of freedom, a BEC features magnetism and spin nematicity which conspire with superfluidity to produce a rich phase diagram. In the absence of an external magnetic field, the mean-field groundstate phase diagram includes two [1, 2], five [3, 4, 5], and eleven phases [6, 7] for spin-1, 2, and 3 BECs, respectively. BECs with spin degrees of freedom are called spinor condensates. Moreover, the magnetic dipole–dipole interaction (MDDI) between atoms lends distinct twists to spinor condensates because it is long-ranged and anisotropic in sharp contrast with other interactions, which are short-ranged and isotropic. In this chapter, we will present a brief overview on the spinordipolar aspects of BEC. An early experimental work of spinor BECs is reviewed in Ref. [8]. Later developments with an emphasis on theoretical aspects are described in Ref. [9]. Many-body physics of polarized dipolar gases is reviewed in Ref. [10].
We discuss the static and dynamic magnetic properties of cold quantum gas systems. In particular, we investigate and analyze the ground state properties and dynamics of F = 2 spinor Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb. The rich physics of these systems is governed by an interplay between mean-field-driven spin dynamics and hyperfine-changing losses in addition to interactions with atoms in the thermal cloud. We find conversion rates on the order of 10-12 cm3 s-1 for spin-changing collisions within the F = 2 manifold and spin-dependent loss rates on the order of 10-13 cm3 s-1 for hyperfine-changing collisions. Our data leads to the conclusion that the F = 2 ground state of 87Rb is polar, while we measure the F = 1 ground state to be ferromagnetic. As remarkable features in the spin dynamics we observe spinor oscillations and a delayed formation of new mF-condensate components.