Abstract We derive from first principles the experimentally observed effective dynamics of a spinor Bose gas initially prepared as a Bose–Einstein condensate and then left free to expand ballistically. In spinor condensates, which represent one of the recent frontiers in the manipulation of ultra-cold atoms, particles interact with a two-body spatial interaction and a spin–spin interaction. The effective dynamics is well-known to be governed by a system of coupled semi-linear Schrödinger equations: we recover this system, in the sense of marginals in the limit of infinitely many particles, with a mean-field re-scaling of the many-body Hamiltonian. When the resulting control of the dynamical persistence of condensation is quantified with the parameters of modern observations, we obtain a bound that remains quite accurate for the whole typical duration of the experiment.
Abstract We derive from first principles the experimentally observed effective dynamics of a spinor Bose gas initially prepared as a Bose–Einstein condensate and then left free to expand ballistically. In spinor condensates, which represent one of the recent frontiers in the manipulation of ultra-cold atoms, particles interact with a two-body spatial interaction and a spin–spin interaction. The effective dynamics is well-known to be governed by a system of coupled semi-linear Schrödinger equations: we recover this system, in the sense of marginals in the limit of infinitely many particles, with a mean-field re-scaling of the many-body Hamiltonian. When the resulting control of the dynamical persistence of condensation is quantified with the parameters of modern observations, we obtain a bound that remains quite accurate for the whole typical duration of the experiment.
We derive the equations for the non-linear effective dynamics of a so called pseudo-spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, which emerges from the linear many-body Schrödinger equation at the leading order in the number of particles. The considered system is a three-dimensional diluted gas of identical bosons with spin, possibly confined in space, and coupled with an external time-dependent magnetic field; particles also interact among themselves through a short-scale repulsive interaction. The limit of infinitely many particles is monitored in the physically relevant Gross-Pitaevskii scaling. In our main theorem, if at time zero the system is in a phase of complete condensation (at the level of the reduced one-body marginal) and with energy per particle fixed by the Gross-Pitaevskii functional, then such conditions persist also at later times, with the one-body orbital of the condensate evolving according to a system of non-linear cubic Schrödinger equations coupled among themselves through linear (Rabi) terms. The proof relies on an adaptation to the spinor setting of Pickl's projection counting method developed for the scalar case. Quantitative rates of convergence are available, but not made explicit because evidently non-optimal. In order to substantiate the formalism and the assumptions made in the main theorem, in an introductory section we review the mathematical formalisation of modern typical experiments with pseudo-spinor condensates.
We derive the equations for the non-linear effective dynamics of a so called pseudo-spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, which emerges from the linear many-body Schrödinger equation at the leading order in the number of particles.The considered system is a three-dimensional diluted gas of identical bosons with spin, possibly confined in space, and coupled with an external time-dependent magnetic field; particles also interact among themselves through a short-scale repulsive interaction.The limit of infinitely many particles is monitored in the physically relevant Gross-Pitaevskii scaling.In our main theorem, if at time zero the system is in a phase of complete condensation (at the level of the reduced one-body marginal) and with energy per particle fixed by the Gross-Pitaevskii functional, then such conditions persist also at later times, with the one-body orbital of the condensate evolving according to a system of non-linear cubic Schrödinger equations coupled among themselves through linear (Rabi) terms.The proof relies on an adaptation to the spinor setting of Pickl's projection counting method developed for the scalar case.Quantitative rates of convergence are available, but not made explicit because evidently non-optimal.In order to substantiate the formalism and the assumptions made in the main theorem, in an introductory section we review the mathematical formalisation of modern typical experiments with pseudo-spinor condensates.
We examine the nonlinear dynamical behavior of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. Considering a condensate with large number of atoms, such that it can be described using the mean field theory, we separate the spinor dynamics from the spatial dynamics under the single-mode approximation. We limit ourselves to certain initial conditions under which the spatial mode is frozen so that we can focus on the spinor dynamics only. Identifying collective spin variables of our system, we derive the corresponding nonlinear equations of motion for them. Employing standard stability analysis, we find and characterize fixed points of the system. For a wide range of physical parameters such as tunneling strength and non-linear interactions, as well as for various initial preparations of the system, we identify qualitatively different dynamical regimes possible in the system. In particular, complete and incomplete oscillations of spin variables between quantum wells are found. We also show that by bringing some fixed points close to each other in the phase space of the system, it is possible to induce amplitude modulation to those otherwise regular tunneling oscillations.
In this thesis, we study theoretically and in experimentally the properties of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with antiferromagnetic interactions realized in the ultra-cold sodium gases confined in optical dipole traps. We present in detail how to realize, diagnose and control the spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in our experiment. In order to describe the condensate, a mean-field theory is first adopted. This theory predicts a phase transition when changing the magnetic field B. The predictions of the mean-field theory agree very well with most of our experimental results, including the values of the critical magnetic field Bc, asymptotic values of n0 (relative atom number in mF=0 state) at large B and the phase diagram of n0. However, for small magnetization and small magnetic fields, we find abnormally large fluctuations (super-Poissonian) of n0. In order to describe these large fluctuations, we develop a full quantum statistical description for the spinor condensate at finite temperature. To describe uncondensed thermal atoms (also present in the same trap), we use the ``semi-ideal" Hartree-Fock approximation to deal with the interactions between the condensate atoms and the thermal ones. The experimental results lead us to introduce two kinds of temperatures, the ``spin temperature" Ts and the ``kinetic temperature" Tk with Ts≪Tk, characterizing respectively the fluctuaitons of the condensate spin and the thermal gas. We conclude that the system is reaching a quasi-equilibrium states, where different degrees of freedom reach equilibrium by separate mechanisms but where the mutual thermalization does not occur over the lifetime of the cloud.
Bose–Einstein Condensation (BEC) of atomic gases has attracted a renewed theoretical and experimental interest in quantum many-body systems at extremely low temperatures (Pethick & Smith; 2002). This excitement stems from two favorable features: (1) by applying magnetic fields and lasers, most of the system parameters, such as the shape, dimensionality, internal states of the condensates, and even the strength of the interatomic interactions, are controllable; (2) due to the diluteness, the mean-field theory explains experiments quite well. In particular, the Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) equation demonstrates its validity as a basic equation for the condensate dynamics. The GP equation is the counterpart of the nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation in nonlinear optics. Thus, a study based on nonlinear analysis is possible and important. In nonlinear physics, a soliton is remarkable object not only for the fact that exact solutions can be obtained but also for its usefulness as a communications tool due to its robustness. In general, solitons are formed under the balance between nonlinearity and dispersion. For atomic condensates, the former is attributed to the interatomic interactions, while the latter comes from the kinetic energy. Either dark or bright solitons are allowable depending on the positive or negative sign of the interatomic coupling constants g, respectively, and indeed have been observed in a quasione-dimensional (q1D) optically constructed waveguide (Strecker et al.; 2002) (Khaykovich et al.; 2002). Such matter-wave solitons are expected in atom optics for applications in atom laser, atom interferometry, and coherent atom transport (Meystre; 2002). In this chapter, we extend the analysis of the matter-wave solitons to a multicomponent case by considering the so-called spinor condensate (Stenger et al.; 1998) whose spin degrees of freedom are liberated under optical traps. Based on theoretical and experimental results, we introduce a new integrable model which describes the dynamical properties of the matter-wave soliton of spinor condensates (Ieda et al.; 2004a). We employ the inverse scattering method to solve this model exactly. As a result, we predict the occurrence of undiscovered physical phenomena such as macroscopic spin precession and spin switching. The chapter is organized as follows. In Sec. 2, the mean field theory of condensate is briefly reviewed. Section 3 introduces an effective interatomic coupling in a q1D condensate. Using these results, we consider a spinor condensate in q1D regime in Sec. 4. Then, in Sec. 5, we
Abstract Predicting the dynamics of quantum systems far from equilibrium represents one of the most challenging problems in theoretical many-body physics1, 2. While the evolution of a many-body system is in general intractable in all its details, relevant observables can become insensitive to microscopic system parameters and initial conditions. This is the basis of the phenomenon of universality. Far from equilibrium, universality is identified through the scaling of the spatio-temporal evolution of the system, captured by universal exponents and functions. Theoretically, this has been studied in examples as different as the reheating process in inflationary Universe cosmology3, 4, the dynamics of nuclear collision experiments described by quantum chromodynamics5, 6, and the post-quench dynamics in dilute quantum gases in non-relativistic quantum field theory7–11. However, an experimental demonstration of such scaling evolution in space and time in a quantum many-body system has been lacking. Here we observe the emergence of universal dynamics by evaluating spatially resolved spin correlations in a quasi-one-dimensional spinor Bose–Einstein condensate12–16. For long evolution times we extract the scaling properties from the spatial correlations of the spin excitations. From this we find the dynamics to be governed by an emergent conserved quantity and the transport of spin excitations towards low momentum scales. Our results establish an important class of non-stationary systems whose dynamics is encoded in time-independent scaling exponents and functions, signalling the existence of non-thermal fixed points10, 17, 18. We confirm that the non-thermal scaling phenomenon involves no fine-tuning of parameters, by preparing different initial conditions and observing the same scaling behaviour. Our analogue quantum simulation approach provides the basis with which to reveal the underlying mechanisms and characteristics of non-thermal universality classes. One may use this universality to learn, from experiments with ultracold gases, about fundamental aspects of dynamics studied in cosmology and quantum chromodynamics.