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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Bose–Einstein condensate in a double-well potential: Feynman path integral variational approach

Wattana Ratismith, Sigmund Heller, Virulh Sa‐Yakanit, Walter T. Strunz

Published Apr 3, 2013• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

A Bose–Einstein condensate in a double-well potential is considered by using the Feynman path integral theory combined with a variational approach. The system consists of N interacting bosons confined in the double well which is taken as a harmonic potential with a Gaussian barrier. The calculation is carried out within the first cumulant approximation measured with respect to the harmonic action containing variational parameters. Assuming a separable expression for the trial action corresponds to the usual mean field approximation. Performing the variational calculations, we obtain analytical results for the ground state energy and its condensate wavefunction. Using a projection onto the odd contributions, the first excited state energy and condensate wavefunction are determined, too. We find very good agreement with a full numerical solution of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation over the full range of potential parameters.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/46/16/165301

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A Bose–Einstein condensate in a double-well potential is considered by using the Feynman path integral theory combined with a variational approach. The system consists of N interacting bosons confined in the double well which is taken as a harmonic potential with a Gaussian barrier. The calculation is carried out within the first cumulant approximation measured with respect to the harmonic action containing variational parameters. Assuming a separable expression for the trial action corresponds to the usual mean field approximation. Performing the variational calculations, we obtain analytical results for the ground state energy and its condensate wavefunction. Using a projection onto the odd contributions, the first excited state energy and condensate wavefunction are determined, too. We find very good agreement with a full numerical solution of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation over the full range of potential parameters.
We apply Feynman's path integral theory to study Bose-Einstein condensates in a double well potential and in a random potential. The main idea of this thesis is to perform the mean field approximation in two body interaction by the path integral approach. Bose particles are confined in the double well which is taken as a harmonic potential with Gaussian or cosine barrier. Performing the variational calculations we obtain analytical results of the ground state energy, wave functions, and overlap integrals. The overlap integrals enable us to calculate the tunneling rates which are in good agreement with numerical values for the two-mode model of Gross-Pitaevskii's equation. We also consider the model of a Bose system consisting of N particles with finite interacting pair potentials under the influence of random potentials. The porosity or nonhomogeneity of the system can be represented by the density of porosity with amplitude of the fluctuation, and a correlation length. We obtain analytical results of the effective mass and the ground state energy which are in good agreement with that of Bugoliubov approach. The propagator of the system is used to calculate the partition function, specific heat, the critical temperature, condensate density, and the superfluid density of the system.
A modeled Bose system consisting of N particles with two-body interaction confined within volume V under the inhomogeneity of the system is investigated using the Feynman path integral approach. The two-body interaction energy is assumed to be dependent on the two-parameter interacting strength a and the correlation length l . The inhomogeneity of the system or the porosity can be represented as density with interacting strength b and correlation length L . The mean-field approximation on the two-body interaction in the Feynman path integrals representation is performed to obtain the one-body interaction. This approximation is equivalent to the Hartree approximation in the many-body electron gas problem. This approximation has shown that the calculation can be reduced to the effective one-body propagator. Performing the variational calculations, we obtain analytical results of the ground-state energy and the condensate density which are in agreement with that from Bugoliubov's approach.
We apply a path integral variational approach to obtain analytical expressions for condensate wave functions of an ultracold, interacting trapped Bose gases. As in many recent experiments, the particles are confined in a 1D or 3D harmonic oscillator trap which is superimposed by a periodic potential in one direction. Based on the first order cumulant expansion with respect to a harmonic trial action, and emplyoing a mean-field approximation, optimal variational parameters are obtained by minimizing an analytical expression for the ground state energy. Our largely analytical results for energy and condensate wave function are in good agreement with fully numerical calculations based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
A modeled Bose system consisting of N particles with two-body interaction confined within volume V under inhomogeneity of the system is investigated using the Feynman path integral approach. The two-body interaction energy is assumed to be dependent on the two-parameter interacting strength a and the correlation length l. The inhomogeneity of the system or the porosity can be represented as density [Formula: see text] with interacting strength b and correlation length L. The mean field approximation on the two-body interaction in the Feynman path integrals representation is performed to obtain the one-body interaction. This approximation is equivalent to the Hartree approximation in the many-body electron gas problem. This approximation has shown that the calculation can be reduced to the effective one-body propagator. Performing the variational calculations, we obtain analytical results of the ground state energy which is in agreement with that from Bugoliubov's approach.
The decay of Bose-Einstein condensates from a metastable ground state into collapse due to macroscopic quantum tunneling is investigated using a semiclassical approximation to Feynman’s path integral formalism. Applying a variational ansatz of a single Gaussian to the wave function determined by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, a special choice of the Gaussian width parameters yields a mean-field energy functional in Hamiltonian form. The temporal spatial extension of the condensate then is described in the picture of a particle moving in an external potential. In this picture the decay of the condensate wave function is investigated using the bounce trajectory method, accounting for the action of the tunneling orbit in imaginary time and quadratic fluctuations around it, the latter described by the Gelfand-Yaglom differential equation. Additionally, the tunneling formalism is used for describing the condensate wave function by a trial function of a superposition of several Gaussians. Using this ansatz a Hamiltonian form of the mean-field energy does not exist and the formalism of describing the tunneling process has to be extended. The bounce trajectory is described in the parameter space of the Gaussian width parameters and the equations of motion for the imaginary time evolution are obtained by applying a time-dependent variational principle. The action of the bounce trajectory is investigated as a function of the number of Gaussians taken into account and the contribution of the fluctuations is evaluated using the monodromy matrix.