Weakly Interacting Bose Gas in Random Environment
Tama Khellil
Weakly interacting Bose gases in a disorder environment have long been a challenging topic in the field of solid-state physics due to the intriguing interplay between superfluidity and localization. In this thesis we investigate theoretically the equilibrium properties of one- and three-dimensional harmonically trapped dirty Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). In particular we focus on the decomposition of the total particle density into three components, namely, the condensate density, the thermal density, and the density of fragmented local Bose-Einstein condensates within the respective minima of the random potential landscape. In order to determine the different density components we develop a Hartree-Fock mean-field theory for a weakly interacting trapped BEC in a random environment, then specialize it to contact interaction and delta-correlated disorder. This non-perturbative theory is worked out on the basis of the replica method, which represents a well- established tool to deal with disorder problems. With this we calculate the corresponding free energy at finite temperature and derive from it the underlying self-consistency equations for the respective density components. Then, as a first step, we investigate a quasi one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensed gas in a harmonic trapping potential with an additional delta- correlated disorder potential at zero temperature. To this end we solve the self-consistency equations within the Thomas-Fermi approximation and find the emergence of a Bose-glass region, where the condensate vanishes. We corroborate this analysis by an elaborate numerical treatment, where the corresponding one-dimensional time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii equation is numerically solved and disorder-ensemble averages of the condensate wave function are performed. The variance of the condensate wave function quantifies the number of bosons which condense in the local minima of the random potential. For weak disorder these mini-condensates turn out to occur preferentially at the border of the condensate, while for intermediate disorder strength this happens in the trap center. Additionally we use a variational ansatz in order to describe analytically the numerically observed redistribution of the fragmented mini-condensates with increasing disorder strength. In close analogy to the one-dimensional case we then treat the three-dimensional dirty Bose gas in an isotropic harmonic trap and a delta- correlated disorder potential at zero temperature using the corresponding self-consistency equations obtained via the Hartree-Fock mean-field theory within the Thomas-Fermi approximation. Additionally we use a variational ansatz, whose results turn out to coincide qualitatively with those obtained from the Thomas-Fermi approximation. Inparticular, a first order quantum phase transition from the superfluid phase, where the condensate density contributes to the total density, to the Bose-glass phase, where all particles are in the mini-condensates, is detected at a critical disorder strength, which agrees with findings in the literature. Furthermore, in a generaltriaxial harmonic trap, we investigate the geometric effect of different trap aspect ratios on the respective properties of the dirty BEC system. Finally, we consider the three- dimensional dirty BEC at finite temperature. This allows us to study the impact of both temperature and disorder fluctuations on the respective components of the density as well as their Thomas-Fermi radii. In particular, we find that the superfluid region, the Bose-glass region, and the thermal region coexist. Furthermore, depending on the system parameters, three phase transitions are detected, namely, one from the superfluid to the Bose-glass phase, one from the Boseglass to the thermal phase, and finally one directly from the superfluid to the thermal phase. All these results could be particularly useful for a quantitative analysis of world-wide on-going experiments with dirty bosons in quasi one-dimensional and three-dimensional harmonic traps.
•Jan 1, 2016•0 citations