Degenerate spinor Bose gases with repulsive density-density interaction and anti-ferromagnetic spin-spin coupling in one spatial dimension are shown to be described by a quantum integrable matrix extension of the nonlinear Schrödinger model, whose fundamental fields are described by an
m×n matrix of bosonic field operators. The eigenstates of this model are constructed for arbitrarily sized matrix field operators by means of algebraic Bethe-ansatz techniques, and the corresponding Bethe equations governing the spectra of conserved quantities are derived. The approach thus generalizes previously chosen techniques to account for arbitrary spin multiplets and their spin-spin interaction. Focusing on the specific case of the
2×2 model, which is shown to correspond to a spin-
1 Bose gas, a set of integral equations is derived, which describe its equilibrium thermodynamic properties. From these, the ground state phase diagram is computed both, numerically and analytically in the parameter plane spanned by the chemical potential and an external magnetic field. Furthermore, we establish a sufficient condition for interacting bosons in one dimension to obey the Pauli exclusion principle. In particular, we show that in the presence of paired bound states, no two quasiparticle rapidities can coincide, provided that the Lieb parameter satisfies
γ>4/3.
We study the static and dynamic magnetic properties of ultracold quantum gases, in particular the spinor physics of F = 1 and F = 2 Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb atoms. Our data lead to the conclusion, that the F = 2 ground state of 87Rb is polar, while we find the F = 1 ground state to be ferromagnetic. The dynamics of spinor systems is linked to an interplay between coherent mean-field interactions, losses and interactions with atoms in the thermal cloud. Within this rich parameter space we observe indications for coherent spinor dynamics and novel thermalization regimes.