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arXiv:2511.12247 · SciPost Physics

The distribution of the moment of inertia for harmonically trapped noninteracting Bosons at finite temperature: Large deviations

Manas Kulkarni, Satya N. Majumdar, Grégory Schehr

Published Oct 22, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We compute the full probability distribution of the moment of inertia I \propto \sum_{i=1}^N \vec{r}_i^{\,2} I ∝ ∑ i = 1 N r → i 2 of a gas of N N noninteracting bosons trapped in a harmonic potential V(r) = (1/2)\, m\, \omega^2 r^2 V ( r ) = ( 1 / 2 ) m ω 2 r 2 , in all dimensions and at all temperature. The appropriate thermodynamic limit in a trapped Bose gas consists in taking the limit N\to ∞ N → ∞ and \omega\to 0 ω → 0 with their product \rho = N \omega^d ρ = N ω d fixed, where \rho ρ plays the role analogous to the density in a translationally invariant system. In this thermodynamic limit and in dimensions d;gt 1 d > 1 , the harmonically trapped Bose gas undergoes a Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) transition as the density \rho ρ crosses a critical value \rho_c(\beta) ρ c ( β ) , where \beta β denotes the inverse temperature. We show that the nature of the condensation is different for 1<d≤ 2 1 < d ≤ 2 and d;gt 2

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.21.4.102

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We investigate the thermodynamics of a Bose gas interacting with repulsive forces and confined in a harmonic trap. We show that the relevant parameters of the system (temperature, number NNN of atoms, harmonic oscillator length, deformation of the trap, sss-wave scattering length) fix its thermodynamic behavior in the large NNN limit through two dimensionless scaling parameters. These are the reduced temperature t=T/Tc0t\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}T/{T}_{c}^{0}t=T/Tc0​ and the ratio $\ensuremath{\eta}$ between the T=0T\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0T=0 value of the chemical potential, evaluated in the Thomas-Fermi limit, and the critical temperature Tc0{T}_{c}^{0}Tc0​ of the noninteracting model. The scaling functions relative to the condensate fraction, energy, chemical potential, and moment of inertia are calculated within the Popov approximation.
We prove the following results. (i) One-dimensional Bose gases which interact via unscaled integrable pair interactions and are confined in an external potential increasing faster than quadratically undergo a complete generalized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at any temperature, in the sense that a macroscopic number of particles are distributed on a o(N) number of one-particle states. (ii) In a one dimensional harmonic trap the replacement of the oscillator frequency ω by ω ln N/N gives rise to a phase transition at a ≡ �ωβ = 1 in the noninteracting gas. For a < 1 the limit distribution of n0/N a is exponential and 〈n0〉/N a → 1. For a> 1 there is BEC with a condensate density 〈n0〉/N → 1 − a −1. For a ≥ 1, (lnN/N)(n0 − 〈n0〉) is asymptotically distributed following Gumbel’s law. For any a> 0 the free energy is −(π 2 /6βa)N / lnN + o(N/ln N), with no singularity at a = 1. (iii) In Model (ii) both above and below the critical temperature the gas undergoes a complete generalized BEC, thus providing a coexistence of ordinary and generalized condensates below the critical point. (iv) Adding an interaction 〈UN 〉 = o(N ln N) to Model (ii) we prove that a complete generalized BEC occurs for any β> 0.
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We consider an interacting, dilute Bose gas trapped in a harmonic potential at a positive temperature. The system is analyzed in a combination of a thermodynamic and a Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) limit where the trap frequency ω{\omega}ω , the temperature T, and the particle number N are related by N∼(T/ω)3→∞{N \sim (T / \omega)^{3} \to\infty}N∼(T/ω)3→∞ while the scattering length is so small that the interaction energy per particle around the center of the trap is of the same order of magnitude as the spectral gap in the trap. We prove that the difference between the canonical free energy of the interacting gas and the one of the noninteracting system can be obtained by minimizing the GP energy functional. We also prove Bose–Einstein condensation in the following sense: The one-particle density matrix of any approximate minimizer of the canonical free energy functional is to leading order given by that of the noninteracting gas but with the free condensate wavefunction replaced by the GP minimizer.
The topic of Bose–Einstein condensation in a uniform, non-interacting gas of bosons is treated in most textbooks on statistical mechanics. In the present chapter we discuss the properties of a non-interacting Bose gas in a trap. We shall calculate equilibrium properties of systems in a semi-classical approximation, in which the energy spectrum is treated as a continuum. For this approach to be valid the temperature must be large compared with Δ∈/ k , where Δ∈ denotes the separation between neighbouring energy levels. As is well known, at temperatures below the Bose–Einstein condensation temperature, the lowest energy state is not properly accounted for if one simply replaces sums by integrals, and it must be included explicitly. The statistical distribution function is discussed in Sec. 2.1, as is the single-particle density of states, which is a key ingredient in the calculations of thermo dynamic properties. Calculations of the transition temperature and the fraction of particles in the condensate are described in Sec. 2.2. In Sec. 2.3 the semi-classical distribution function is introduced, and from this we determine the density profile and the velocity distribution of particles. Thermodynamic properties of Bose gases are calculated as functions of the temperature in Sec. 2.4. The final two sections are devoted to effects not captured by the simplest version of the semi-classical approximation: corrections to the transition temperature due to a finite particle number (Sec. 2.5), and thermodynamic properties of gases in lower dimensions (Sec. 2.6).