Abstract We investigate the collective mode of a self-gravitating Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) described by the Gross–Pitaevskii–Poisson (GPP) equations. The self-gravitating BEC has garnered considerable attention in cosmology and astrophysics, being proposed as a plausible candidate for dark matter. Our inquiry delves into the breathing and anisotropic collective modes by numerically solving the GPP equations and using the variational method. The breathing mode demonstrates a reduction in period with increasing total mass due to the density dependence of the self-gravitating BEC, attributed to the density-dependent nature of self-gravitating BECs, aligning quantitatively with our analytical findings. Additionally, we investigate an anisotropic collective mode in which the quadrupole mode intertwines with the breathing mode. The period of the quadrupole mode exhibits similar total mass dependence to that of the breathing mode. The characteristics of these periods differ from those of a conventional BEC confined by an external potential. Despite the differences in density dependence, the ratio of their periods equals that of the BEC confined by an isotropic harmonic potential. Furthermore, an extension of the variational method to a spheroidal configuration enables the isolation of solely the quadrupole mode from the anisotropic collective mode.
Abstract We investigate the collective mode of a self-gravitating Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) described by the Gross–Pitaevskii–Poisson (GPP) equations. The self-gravitating BEC has garnered considerable attention in cosmology and astrophysics, being proposed as a plausible candidate for dark matter. Our inquiry delves into the breathing and anisotropic collective modes by numerically solving the GPP equations and using the variational method. The breathing mode demonstrates a reduction in period with increasing total mass due to the density dependence of the self-gravitating BEC, attributed to the density-dependent nature of self-gravitating BECs, aligning quantitatively with our analytical findings. Additionally, we investigate an anisotropic collective mode in which the quadrupole mode intertwines with the breathing mode. The period of the quadrupole mode exhibits similar total mass dependence to that of the breathing mode. The characteristics of these periods differ from those of a conventional BEC confined by an external potential. Despite the differences in density dependence, the ratio of their periods equals that of the BEC confined by an isotropic harmonic potential. Furthermore, an extension of the variational method to a spheroidal configuration enables the isolation of solely the quadrupole mode from the anisotropic collective mode.
We numerically examine the corotation of two parallel quantized vortices in a self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) employing the Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson equations. The long-range gravitationally attractive interaction allows the BEC to self-confine without the need for external potentials, while the density-dependence of the gravitational potential induces intriguing behaviors in the quantized vortices. The aim of this study is to provide a clue for understanding the corotation of two quantized vortices under the influence of gravitational interactions. The corotation of two quantized vortices is coupled with collective modes of the BEC, which markedly differs from the behavior observed in typical BECs confined by an external potential. The rotational period increases linearly with the initial position from the center of the BEC. This deviation from the quadratic increase observed in a uniform BEC suggests that the gravitational interaction exerts a drag effect on the rotating quantized vortices. The two closely positioned quantized vortices rotate along elliptical orbits with radial fluctuations. However, when the quantized vortices are initially positioned beyond a critical radius comparable to their core sizes, their trajectory transitions into an outward spiral, implying the onset of effective dissipation. Our findings demonstrate that the radial fluctuations of the quantized vortex resonate with the quadrupole mode of the BEC, giving rise to a dissipation mechanism.
Collective modes of the ground and excited states of Bose?Einstein condensates are calculated by diagonalization of the Bogoliubov?de Gennes matrix in cylindrical coordinates. For an isotropic magnetic trap, the first breathing mode frequencies of the ground and dark soliton excited states are found to be in excellent agreement with a direct solution of the Gross?Pitaevskii equation with a time-dependent driving potential. In addition, the matrix diagonalization yields densities and frequencies for second breathing modes and higher order multipole modes. For an axially symmetric anisotropic trap, a considerable number of collective modes of the ground and dark soliton excited states are calculated. Prolate traps are found to have many more low-frequency multipolar modes than found in oblate traps for both ground and dark soliton excited states.
Collective modes of the ground and excited states of Bose–Einstein condensates are studied by numerical solution of the time-dependent Gross–Pitaevskii equation in three spatial dimensions. Scissors modes are studied by quadrupole excitation of the ground and excited states of 23 Na condensates in a fully anisotropic magnetic trap. The frequencies of the collective modes for the ground state condensates are found to be in good agreement with previous linear response theory. New results are presented for the frequencies of the collective modes for excited state condensates which exhibit solitary density depressions. A key to the proper characterization of the wide variety of dark-soliton states in atomic condensates is the experimental observation of collective modes.
Collective modes are coherent excitations in Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs), and their study provides insight into the macroscopic quantum phenomena that govern these systems. Collective mode frequencies can be used to probe the properties of BECs, such as the trap geometry, the interatomic interactions, and the presence of defects; hence, it is essential to develop methods for high-resolution determination of collective mode frequencies. A standard technique consists of a single pulse of an external oscillatory field, which the authors denote Rabi-like due to the analogy with the field of nuclear magnetic resonances. In this work, the authors propose a method to achieve a better resolution than the Rabi-like protocol, which consists of two oscillating fields separated in time, which the authors call Ramsey-like. The authors focus on BECs in harmonic traps, considering mainly the quadrupole and breathing modes for different trap anisotropy values and comparing the results using single and double excitation periods. First, the authors employ a variational approach with a Thomas–Fermi ansatz, which gives rise to dynamical equations that are numerically solved. Then, the authors modeled the problem as a three-level system, offering a concise and alternative description of the same dynamics, enabling the idea of coherent control of these collective modes. Both approaches show that the Ramsey-like protocol provides a better resolution than the Rabi-like. This offers the possibility of measuring collective mode frequencies with higher precision, which is important in experiments where they are used as indirect measurements of properties that are difficult to probe.
We develop an analytical approach for calculating the Landau damping of collective modes in the Bose-Einstein condensate trapped by an anisotropic harmonic potential. Based on a variational ground-state wave function obtained by solving the time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii equation beyond Thomas-Fermi approximation, we solve the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations describing thermal excited quasiparticles and provide divergence-free analytical solutions for the Bogoliubov amplitudes and coupling matrix elements that characterize the interaction between the collective modes and the quasiparticles. With these analytical results we evaluate the Landau damping rates of several collective modes for various anisotropic parameters of the trapping potential in terms of the formulas derived from a time-dependent mean-field theory. In addition, we discuss the dependence of the damping rates on temperature, particle number, trapping frequency, and anisotropic parameter of the system, and compare our theoretical results with experimental and numerical data reported in literature.
The experimental discovery of dilute ultracold quantum gases in 1995 has instigated a broad interest in ultracold atoms and molecules, and paved the way for extensive studies of a wide range of both experimental and theoretical topics. Various theories were developed to describe Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) for different ranges of temperature and interaction strengths. This thesis focuses on studying the mean-field theory of the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation which provides a good description for the macroscopic wave function when both quantum and thermal fluctuations are negligible. This means that the range of validity is restricted to small interaction strengths at zero temperature. Within the GP theory we study analytically and numerically the nonlinear dynamics of BECs which are induced by a harmonic modulation of either the interaction strength or the harmonic trapping potential. At first a detailed numerical investigation reveals that solving the partial differential equation of Gross and Pitaevskii can be reduced to solving ordinary differential equations for the condensate widths within a Gaussian variational approach. Despite this tremendous simplification the prominent nonlinearity of the underlying GP equation is inherited by the variational equations, which thus allow to describe a rich variety of nonlinear phenomena in different experimental setups. In order to describe them analytically we transfer the Poincar\'e-Lindstedt method, which represents a well-established tool in the field of nonlinear dynamics, to the Gaussian variational approach. Modulation of some of the parameters of a BEC can give rise to prominent nonlinear features, such as shifts in the frequencies of collective oscillation modes, higher harmonics generation, and resonant mode coupling. As a first application we consider a recent Bose-Einstein condensate of Li-7, which has been excited experimentally by a harmonic modulation of the atomic s-wave scattering length with the help of a Feshbach resonance. Combining an analytical perturbative approach with extensive numerical simulations, we analyze the emerging nonlinear dynamics. In particular, we present the resulting shift of collective excitation spectra close to parametric resonances where the driving frequency coincides with a collective mode frequency. Another application of experimental importance is to study geometric resonances in BECs with two-body and three-body contact interactions, where changing the geometry of the trapping potential leads to commensurate collective excitation frequencies with emerging nonlinear effects such as frequency shifts and resonant mode coupling. In this context we also show that a small repulsive three-body interaction is able to extend the stability region of the condensate for an attractive two-body interaction as it increases the critical number of atoms in the trap. Apart from a periodic modulation of a system parameter the dipole mode frequency can be excited by introducing an abrupt change in the potential, where the center of mass oscillates according to the Kohn theorem back and forth in the trapping potential with the natural trap frequency irrespective of both the strength and the type of the two-particle interaction. To this end, we study the collective excitation modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic Ioffe- Pritchard in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance for experimentally realistic parameters of a Rb-85 BEC, where the dipole mode is excited in z-direction. A linearization of the underlying equations of motions shows that the dipole mode frequency decreases when the bias magnetic field approaches the Feshbach resonance, so the Kohn theorem is violated. Finally within a variational approach we discuss the physical properties of a BEC in an axially-symmetric harmonic trap with a single vortex in the center. At first we analyze the equilibrium configuration and determine the vortex size as well as the Thomas- Fermi radii of the condensate in the Thomas-Fermi limit. Then we calculate the critical rotation frequency for the emergence of the vortex and compare our findings with the literature. Finally, we investigate how the presence of the vortex changes the collective excitation frequencies and we discuss the free expansion of the BEC. All these results indicate how nonlinear dynamics properties could be made clearly observable in future experiments on the basis of our results.