We have used the definition of global thermodynamic variables like pressure and volume for atoms trapped in a nonuniform potential to measure the state equation for a sample of cold Na atoms kept trapped in a quadrupole magnetic field. The results show that, for low atomic density, the system behaves like an ideal gas where pressure and volume are inversely proportional. At high density values (compressed system), the deviation from an ideal gas is clear. A model based on virial expansion shows that the measured deviation is larger than the expected first-order correction. Employing the concept of global variables may be an important procedure to describe the thermodynamic of gases in the ultracold regime eventually crossing the values where critical phenomena like Bose condensation, among others, take place.
We have used the definition of global thermodynamic variables like pressure and volume for atoms trapped in a nonuniform potential to measure the state equation for a sample of cold Na atoms kept trapped in a quadrupole magnetic field. The results show that, for low atomic density, the system behaves like an ideal gas where pressure and volume are inversely proportional. At high density values (compressed system), the deviation from an ideal gas is clear. A model based on virial expansion shows that the measured deviation is larger than the expected first-order correction. Employing the concept of global variables may be an important procedure to describe the thermodynamic of gases in the ultracold regime eventually crossing the values where critical phenomena like Bose condensation, among others, take place.
Thermodynamics of non-uniform systems has always been a challenging topic in the physical sciences.In the field of quantum gases, that subject is mainly studied with ultracold samples trapped in a harmonic potential, the first kind of confinement ever made to atomic fluids. 1 Nascimbène et al. 2 have already described a method to measure locally the equation of state and heat capacity of a harmonically trapped quantum gas.Nonetheless, local measurements cannot provide the volume-dependent susceptibilities of an inhomogeneous system, namely the thermal expansion and compressibility, meaning that the thermodynamic description of harmonically trapped gases is still incomplete.To solve that issue, Romero and Bagnato 3, 4 proposed canonical variables of work for a gas in a harmonic trap, which work like pressure and volume for a gas in a vessel and allow global measurements on the system.Therefore, we describe here our methodology to measure the thermodynamic susceptibilities of a harmonically trapped gas around the Bose-Einstein transition using the Romero-Bagnato formalism.Our experiments were divided in different phases, each having the harmonic trap with unique frequencies, related to the formalism's extensive variable.In each phase, we prepared individual samples of rubidium-87 gas in the trap and imaged them using the time-of-flight technique.Next, we fitted our images with the bimodal model and found the in situ density profiles of the samples with the standard regression procedures.Then, we determined the phase's equation of state as a function of temperature and number of atoms.For the thermodynamic analysis, we used an empirical model that we developed to fit the equation-of-state curves, allowing us to represent our data in terms of mathematical coefficients.In that way, we found the curves of internal energy, heat capacity, thermal expansion and compressibility, thus achieving a full thermodynamic description of a harmonically trapped gas.Our method and its results are unprecedented in the literature and might contribute to the further understanding of non-uniform systems, as well as the future development of quantum thermal engines.
We present the full thermodynamics of an interacting fluid confined by an arbitrary external potential. We show that for each confining potential, there emerge "generalized" volume and pressure variables V and P , that replace the usual volume and hydrostatic pressure of a uniform system. This scheme is validated with the derivation of the virial expansion of the grand potential. We discuss how this approach yields experimentally amenable procedures to find the equation of state of the fluid, P=P(VN,T) with N the number of atoms, as well as its heat capacity at constant generalized volume C_{V}=C_{V}(V,N,T) . With these two functions, all the thermodynamics properties of the system may be found. As specific examples we study weakly interacting Bose gases trapped by harmonic and by linear quadrupolar potentials within the Hartree-Fock approximation. We claim that this route provides an additional and useful tool to analyze both the thermodynamic variables of an ultracold trapped gas as well as its elementary excitations.
We present theoretical aspects concerning the thermodynamics of an ideal bosonic gas trapped by a harmonic potential. Working in the Grand Canonical ensemble we are able to properly identify the extensive thermodynamic variable equivalent to the volume and the intensive thermodynamic variable equivalent to the pressure. These are called the "harmonic volume" and the "harmonic pressure" and their physical meaning is discussed. With these variables, the problem of Bose-Einstein condensation is studied in terms of the behavior of the corresponding equation of state and in terms of measurable susceptibilities such as the heat capacities, the isothermal compressibility and the coefficient of thermal expansion. From the analysis, an interesting analogy with Black-Body radiation emerges, showing that at and below the critical temperature, the non-condensate fraction of atoms behaves thermodynamically like a gas of massless particles.
Thermodynamics of non-uniform systems has always been a challenging topic in the physical sciences. In the field of quantum gases, that subject is mainly studied with ultracold samples trapped in a harmonic potential, the first kind of confinement ever made to atomic fluids.1 Nascimbène et al.2 have already described a method to measure locally the equation of state and heat capacity of a harmonically trapped quantum gas. Nonetheless, local measurements cannot provide the volume-dependent susceptibilities of an inhomogeneous system, namely the thermal expansion and compressibility, meaning that the thermodynamic description of harmonically trapped gases is still incomplete. To solve that issue, Romero and Bagnato3, 4 proposed canonical variables of work for a gas in a harmonic trap, which work like pressure and volume for a gas in a vessel and allow global measurements on the system. Therefore, we describe here our methodology to measure the thermodynamic susceptibilities of a harmonically trapped gas around the Bose-Einstein transition using the Romero-Bagnato formalism. Our experiments were divided in different phases, each having the harmonic trap with unique frequencies, related to the formalism´s extensive variable. In each phase, we prepared individual samples of rubidium-87 gas in the trap and imaged them using the time-of-flight technique. Next, we fitted our images with the bimodal model and found the in situ density profiles of the samples with the standard regression procedures. Then, we determined the phase´s equation of state as a function of temperature and number of atoms. For the thermodynamic analysis, we used an empirical model that we developed to fit the equation-of-state curves, allowing us to represent our data in terms of mathematical coefficients. In that way, we found the curves of internal energy, heat capacity, thermal expansion and compressibility, thus achieving a full thermodynamic description of a harmonically trapped gas. Our method and its results are unprecedented in the literature and might contribute to the further understanding of non-uniform systems, as well as the future development of quantum thermal engines.
In this work we shall present the overview of our work to study trapped quantum gases in terms of global thermodynamic variables, as well as in terms of coherent modes excitation and investigation of critical phenomena within a condensate. Using cold Na atoms we have produced a sample of Bose‐Einstein condensate atoms, with which we have performed the first experiments to establish an equation of state using global thermodynamic variables. In our system using Rb, we are working to continue on this direction as well as to implement and study the excitation of coherent modes on the confining potential.
We present the full thermodynamics of a fluid confined by an arbitrary external potential based on the virial expansion of the grand potential. The fluid may be classical or quantum and it is assumed that interatomic interactions are pairwise additive. We indicate how the appropriate "generalized" volume and pressure variables, that replace the usual volume and hydrostatic pressure, emerge for a given confining potential in the thermodynamic limit. A discussion of the physical meaning and of the measurement of these variables is presented. We emphasize that this treatment yields the correct equation of state of the fluid and we give its virial expansion. We propose an experiment to measure the heat capacity, so that with this quantity and the equation of state, the complete thermodynamics of the system may be extracted. As a corollary, we find that the so-called {\it local density approximation} for these systems follows in the thermodynamic limit, although we also point out that it cannot be used indiscriminately for all local variables. Along the text we discuss the relevance of these findings in the description of the currently confined ultracold gases.