We report the observation of a universal behavior of ultracold quantum critical (QC) Bose gases trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We extract the density probability distributions from the measured atomic density of the rubidium Bose gases after a free expansion time. The density probability is found to follow a simple exponential law once the lattice system has entered the QC region above the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition. We show that, in addition to relative phase fluctuations between the subcondensates in different lattice wells, there also exist spatial phase fluctuations within single lattice wells in this QC region. The universal density-probability distribution can thus be well understood by a simple theoretical model taking into account these two kinds of phase fluctuations.
We report the observation of a universal behavior of ultracold quantum critical (QC) Bose gases trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We extract the density probability distributions from the measured atomic density of the rubidium Bose gases after a free expansion time. The density probability is found to follow a simple exponential law once the lattice system has entered the QC region above the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition. We show that, in addition to relative phase fluctuations between the subcondensates in different lattice wells, there also exist spatial phase fluctuations within single lattice wells in this QC region. The universal density-probability distribution can thus be well understood by a simple theoretical model taking into account these two kinds of phase fluctuations.
Quantum critical matter has already been studied in many systems, including cold atomic gases. We report the observation of a universal behaviour of ultracold quantum critical Bose gases in a one-dimensional optical lattice. In the quantum critical region above the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, the relative phase fluctuations between neighboring subcondensates and spatial phase fluctuations of quasi-2D subcondensates coexist. We study the density probability distribution function when both these two phase fluctuations are considered. A universal exponential density probability distribution is demonstrated experimentally, which agrees well with a simple theoretical model by considering these two phase fluctuations.
The physics in two-dimensional (2D) systems is very different from what we observe in three-dimensional (3D) systems. Thermal fluctuations in 2D systems are enhanced, and they prevent the conventional Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at non-zero temperatures by destroying the long-range order. However, a phase transition to a superfluid phase is still expected to occur in a 2D system along with an emergence of a quasi-long-range order, explained by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) mechanism. Within the BKT mechanism, a universal jump of the superfluid density in a 2D Bosonic system was theoretically predicted by Nelson and Kosterlitz, and was first observed in 2D \textsuperscript{4}He films by Bishop and Reppy. Recent experiments in trapped ultracold 2D Bose gas systems have shown signatures of the BKT transition, and its superfluidity. However, the universal jump in the superfluid density was not observed in these systems. Here we report the first observation of the universal jump in the superfluid density using an optically trapped ultracold 2D Bose gas. The measured superfluid phase space density at the BKT transition agrees well with the predicted value within our measurement uncertainty. Additionally, we measure the phase fluctuations in our density profiles to show that the BKT transition occurs first, followed by the BEC transition.
Quantum criticality emerges when a many-body system is in the proximity of a continuous phase transition that is driven by quantum fluctuations. In the quantum critical regime, exotic, yet universal properties are anticipated; ultracold atoms provide a clean system to test these predictions. We report the observation of quantum criticality with two-dimensional Bose gases in optical lattices. On the basis of in situ density measurements, we observe scaling behavior of the equation of state at low temperatures, locate the quantum critical point, and constrain the critical exponents. We observe a finite critical entropy per particle that carries a weak dependence on the atomic interaction strength. Our experiment provides a prototypical method to study quantum criticality with ultracold atoms.
We study the universal critical behavior of two-dimensional (2D) lattice bosonic gases at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition, which separates the low-temperature superfluid phase from the high-temperature normal phase. For this purpose, we perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the hard-core Bose-Hubbard (BH) model at zero chemical potential. We determine the critical temperature by using a matching method that relates finite-size data for the BH model with corresponding data computed in the classical XY model. In this approach, the neglected scaling corrections decay as inverse powers of the lattice size L, and not as powers of 1/lnL, as in more standard approaches, making the estimate of the critical temperature much more reliable. Then, we consider the BH model in the presence of a trapping harmonic potential, and we verify the universality of the trap-size dependence at the BKT critical point. This issue is relevant for experiments with quasi-2D trapped cold atoms.
We study the superfluid transition of weakly interacting Bose gases, classical fields and related systems in two dimensions, where it is a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, and in three dimensions, where it is a U(1) transition accompanied by the onset of Bose-Einstein condensation. We show that for small interaction strength U, these systems can be described by a :Ψ:4 model based on classical complex fields and we establish universal behavior among systems of different microscopical details, such as classical and quantum, continuous and lattice. By numerical simulations of the classical lattice field, using Worm Algorithm, we solve all relevant thermodynamical functions of this system, which are density, condensate density (in 3D), superfluid density and quasi-condensate. Through universality considerations, we can translate these results to all systems which can be described by a :Ψ:4 model based on a classical complex field. Our results cover the fluctuation region and extend into mean field and critical region, where we connect them to results of mean field theory and renormalization group theory respectively. We also establish that the quasicondensate, which exists in two and three dimensions, is a basis for a more accurate mean field theory treatment than the condensate, which exists only in three dimensions.
We analyze density-density correlations of expanding clouds of weakly interacting two-dimensional Bose gases below and above the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, with particular focus on short-time expansions. During time-of-flight expansion, phase fluctuations of the trapped system translate into density fluctuations, in addition to the density fluctuations that exist in situ. We calculate the correlations of these fluctuations both in real space and in momentum space and derive analytic expressions in momentum space. Below the transition, the correlation functions show an oscillatory behavior, controlled by the scaling exponent of the quasicondensed phase, due to constructive interference. We argue that this can be used to extract the scaling exponent of the quasicondensate experimentally. Above the transition, the interference is rapidly suppressed when the atoms travel an average distance beyond the correlation length. This can be used to distinguish the two phases qualitatively.