Magnons are excitations of magnetically ordered materials that correspond to spatial and temporal variations of the magnetic order parameter. In systems that spontaneously break rotational symmetry, these magnons are Nambu-Goldstone bosons, implying that, in the absence of long-range interactions, they should be gapped and, depending on the nature of the magnetic order parameter, should be either linearly or quadratically dispersing.
Magnons are excitations of magnetically ordered materials that correspond to spatial and temporal variations of the magnetic order parameter. In systems that spontaneously break rotational symmetry, these magnons are Nambu-Goldstone bosons, implying that, in the absence of long-range interactions, they should be gapped and, depending on the nature of the magnetic order parameter, should be either linearly or quadratically dispersing.
States with a coherent precession of magnetization such as a homogeneously precessing domain or a persistently precessing domain created in the superfluid 3He-B represent the macroscopic examples of the Bose-Einstein condensates of magnons. Once the magnons form one of these states, this many-magnon coherent quantum state is described by a ``single-magnon wave function'' (or an order parameter). A suitable external perturbation may cause the condensate to oscillate around the state of coherent precession, which demonstrates a collective rigidity of the condensate against scattering a single magnon out of it. The states corresponding to a free coherent precession of magnetization are degenerate in the phase of precession, so there exist oscillations around such states with a gapless dispersion relation, known as the Goldstone modes. Here, we present both experimental and theoretical results of the study of the spin density oscillations superposed on a homogeneously precessing domain in superfluid 3He-B in the presence of a high-frequency excitation field Brf. We show that the presence of this field lifts the degeneracy of the precessing state with respect to the phase of precession, that is, it violates the symmetry of the magnon condensate, and former Goldstone modes become non-Goldstone ones, as they acquire the energy gap in their spectrum.
We measure the dispersion relation, gap, and magnetic moment of a magnon in the ferromagnetic F = 1 spinor Bose-Einstein condensate of (87)Rb. From the dispersion relation we measure an average effective mass 1.033(2)(stat)(10)(sys) times the atomic mass, as determined by interfering standing and running coherent magnon waves within the dense and trapped condensed gas. The measured mass is higher than theoretical predictions of mean-field and beyond-mean-field Beliaev theory for a bulk spinor Bose gas with s-wave contact interactions. We observe a magnon energy gap of h × 2.5(1)(stat)(2)(sys) Hz, which is consistent with the predicted effect of magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. These dipolar interactions may also account for the high magnon mass. The effective magnetic moment of -1.04(2)(stat)(8)(sys) times the atomic magnetic moment is consistent with mean-field theory.
A quantised spin wave – magnon – in magnetic films can undergo Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) into two energetically degenerate lowest-energy quantum states with nonzero wave vectors ±k BEC . This corresponds to two interfering condensates forming spontaneously in momentum space. Brillouin Light Scattering studies for a microwavepumped film with submicrometer spatial resolution experimentally confirm the existence of the two wavefunctions and show that their interference results in a nonuniform ground state of the condensate with the density oscillating in space. Moreover, fork dislocations in the density fringes provide direct experimental evidence for the formation of pinned half-quantum vortices in the magnon condensate. The measured amplitude of the density oscillation implies the formation of a nonsymmetric state that corresponds to nonequal occupation of two energy minima. We discuss the experimental findings and consider the theory of magnon condensates, which includes, to leading order, the contribution from the noncondensed magnons. The effect of the noncondensed magnon cloud is to increase the contrast of the asymmetric state and to bring about the experimental measurements. Introduction Magnons are quasiparticles corresponding to quantised spin waves that describe the collective motion of spins [1]. In recent years, it has become possible to realise a BEC of magnons in two remarkably different systems: in superfluid phases of an isotope of helium – Helium-3 at ultralow temperatures [2, 3] and in ferrimagnetic insulators [4, 5, 6, 7]. In the normal, noncondensed state, these magnetic materials exhibit a magnetically ordered state with a gas of magnons whose phases are not correlated. However, once condensation occurs, spins develop phase coherence resulting in a common global frequency and phase of precession. At room temperature, ferrimagnetic insulators, such as yttrium-iron garnet (YIG) films, together with a combination of an in-plane magnetic field and microwave radiation, are required for the magnon condensation [4, 5, 6, 7]. Therefore, in analogy with exciton– polariton condensates, this provides yet another example of a BEC of quasiparticle excitations in a solid-state system. Experimental Realisation of a Bose-Einstein Condensate of Magnons in an Epitaxial YIG-film A room-temperature Bose-Einstein condensate of magnons was created in an epitaxial YIG-film using an experimental setup shown in Fig. 25.1a, which, in general, is similar to that used in our previous studies [4, 5]. Given that magnons are quasiparticle excitations, their number is not conserved and, therefore, the chemical potential is zero.
In accord with Nambu-Goldstone theorem spontaneous breaking of a global continuous symmetry of the system by a mean-field parameter causes appearance of massless Goldstone bosons, called also gapless Goldstone modes. It is demonstrated below that the theorem can be violated, i.e. the Goldstone modes possess finite gap, in the case of a novel (quantum ordered) state of interacting fermions, that was proposed recently {mukhin 2011}. This result may lead to the important consequences when considered in combination with another peculiar properties of the quantum parameter (QOP) that where recently found: QOP's Green's function is finite and periodic along the Matsubara's axis, but Wick-rotated to the axis of real frequencies, possesses infinite periodic chain of \it{second poles} along this axis {mukhin 2011}. This property of QOP leads to a remarkable physical consequence: \it{QOP does not scatter anything in Minkowski world} ! Hence, the present theory, we believe, may naturally indicate that two effects: hidden order revealed in ARPES spectra of fermi-excitations and neutron resonance feature at finite frequency in the magnetic (bosonic) excitations spectrum in lightly hole-doped copper oxides, could be emerging fingerprints of the Euclidian crystal state. A peculiar manifestation of the QOP self-consistent solution in the form of non-classical phonon states is described for an Euclidian predicted recently {mukhin,fistul 2013} in the array of Josephson junctions coupled via electromagnetic field in the superconducting resonator. It is demonstrated that it may constitute a stable state of the system, that, for a particular quantum disordering model, exists inside the stability domain of the classical photonic condensate delimited by the critical value of the quantum disordering strength.
Nambu-Goldstone modes in immiscible two-component Bose-Einstein condensates are studied theoretically. In a uniform system, a flat domain wall is stabilized and then the translational invariance normal to the wall is spontaneously broken in addition to the breaking of two U(1) symmetries in the presence of two complex order parameters. We clarify the properties of the low-energy excitations and identify that there exist two Nambu-Goldstone modes: an in-phase phonon with a linear dispersion and a ripplon with a fractional dispersion. The signature of the characteristic dispersion can be verified in segregated condensates in a harmonic potential.
The subject of condensed matter physics is very rich — there are an infinite number of parameters producing a diversity of exciting phenomena. As a theorist, my goal is to distill general principles out of this complexity — to construct theories that can coherently explain many known examples altogether.This thesis is composed of several attempts to develop such theories in topics related to spontaneously symmetry breaking. A remarkable feature of many-body interacting systems is that although they are described by equations respecting various symmetries, they may spontaneously organize into a state that explicitly breaks symmetries. Examples are numerous: various types of crystalline and magnetic orders, Bose-Einstein condensates of cold atoms, superfluids of liquid helium, chiral symmetry in QCD, neutron stars, and cosmic inflation.These systems with spontaneously broken continuous symmetries have gapless excitations, so called Nambu-Goldstone bosons (NGBs). Although the properties of NGBs are well understood in Lorentz-invariant systems, surprisingly, some basic properties of NGBs such as their number and dispersion in nonrelativistic systems have not been discussed from a general perspective. In the first part of this thesis, we solve this issue by developing and analyzing an effective Lagrangian that coherently captures the low-energy, long-distance physics of many different symmetry-breaking states all at once.Next, we examine whether these NGBs originating from spontaneous symmetry breaking remain to be well-defined excitations inside a metal, where low-energy electrons near Fermi surface can collide with them. Our result is a one equation criterion that specifies whether the interactions between electrons and NGBs can be ignored, or whether it completely changes their character. In the latter case, unusual phases of matter such as non-Fermi liquids may arise; in that case, NGBs are overdamped and cannot form particle-like excitations in spite of the assumed symmetry breaking.In the last part of this thesis, we investigate the possibility of spontaneously breaking of Hamiltonian itself. The homogeneity of time is one of the most fundamental symmetries of nature, underlying the conservation of the energy. The question is whether this symmetry can be spontaneously broken, as suggested recently by Wilczek, in analogy with ordinary crystals. Contrary to his proposal that attracted a significant attention and stimulated many further studies, we prove a no-go theorem that rules out spontaneously breaking of time translation, in the ground state or in the canonical ensemble of a general Hamiltonian.