The spin evolution of a Bose-Einstein condensate starting from a mixture of two or three groups of
52Cr (spin-3) atoms in an optical trap has been studied theoretically. The initial state is so chosen that the system does not distinguish up and down. In this choice, the deviation caused by the single-mode approximation is reduced. Moreover, since the particle number is given very small (N=20), the deviation caused by the neglect of the long-range dipole force is also reduced. Making use of these two simplifications, a theoretical calculation beyond the mean field theory is performed. The numerical results are help to evaluate the unknown strength
g0.
In this thesis, we study theoretically and in experimentally the properties of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with antiferromagnetic interactions realized in the ultra-cold sodium gases confined in optical dipole traps. We present in detail how to realize, diagnose and control the spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in our experiment. In order to describe the condensate, a mean-field theory is first adopted. This theory predicts a phase transition when changing the magnetic field
B. The predictions of the mean-field theory agree very well with most of our experimental results, including the values of the critical magnetic field
Bc, asymptotic values of
n0 (relative atom number in
mF=0 state) at large
B and the phase diagram of
n0. However, for small magnetization and small magnetic fields, we find abnormally large fluctuations (super-Poissonian) of
n0. In order to describe these large fluctuations, we develop a full quantum statistical description for the spinor condensate at finite temperature. To describe uncondensed thermal atoms (also present in the same trap), we use the ``semi-ideal" Hartree-Fock approximation to deal with the interactions between the condensate atoms and the thermal ones. The experimental results lead us to introduce two kinds of temperatures, the ``spin temperature"
Ts and the ``kinetic temperature"
Tk with
Ts≪Tk, characterizing respectively the fluctuaitons of the condensate spin and the thermal gas. We conclude that the system is reaching a quasi-equilibrium states, where different degrees of freedom reach equilibrium by separate mechanisms but where the mutual thermalization does not occur over the lifetime of the cloud.
The spin mixing dynamics of spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates with zero magnetization and under an external magnetic field is investigated in a systematic way. Beyond the mean field theory, the time-dependent solutions of the Hamiltonian under the single mode approximation are obtained via a procedure of diagonalization. Thereby the time-dependent populations of spin-0 component starting from various initial states are obtained and analyzed. The features of evolution are compared in detail with those with the field removed so as to emphasize the effect of the field. Since the solutions are exact for the Hamiltonian, we can study the long-term behavior of the evolution, where periodicity and inherent symmetry emerge. In particular, some special cases are found in which the evolution is highly sensitive to the field, very strong oscillation in population can be thereby induced. A new mode of oscillation of the population characterized by having two frequencies, one is high and one is low, is found when the field is sufficiently strong.
Spin evolution of a mixture of two species of spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates (Rb and Na) has been investigated rigorously. The Hamiltonian under the single-mode approximation (which is the only approximation in the present theory) has been solved exactly. Both analytical expressions and numerical results on the populations of spin components are obtained. Interference between the two species is found to depend sensitively on the initial states and the inter-species interaction. A number of phenomena arising from the interference have been predicted. In particular, periodic behaviour and the alternate appearances of a zone of oscillation and a long quiet zone are found.
We evaluate the zero temperature properties and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of hard sphere bosons in a harmonic trap using Quantum Monte Carlo methods. The chief purpose of this work is to go beyond the dilute limit, to test the limits of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and related mean field approximations and to explore the role of interactions in determining the zero temperature properties of the trapped Bose gas. The density is increased by adjusting both the number of trapped bosons, N , and the s-wave scattering length, a, to study systems from the highly dilute region corresponding to early experiments in trapped BEC [2, 3] up to liquid He densities and beyond. Rather than relying on the perturbative Bogoliubov approximation (which assumes a large condensate fraction) to describe the condensate, we use the one-body density matrix (OBDM) formulation of BEC so that the properties of the condensate for systems with arbitrarily large interactions may be studied. In this formulation of BEC, condensate properties are obtained by diagonalizing the OBDM and obtaining the corresponding single particle “natural orbitals” and their occupation numbers for the system. The condensate wave function and condensate fraction are then obtained from the single particle orbital(s) with macroscopic occupation (N0 >> 1). Within this framework, we calculate the effects of interactions and increased density on the ground state energy, the density profile, the momentum distribution, the condensate fraction and condensate “wave-function” and several other properties.
The achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in ultracold vapors of alkali atoms has given enormous impulse to the theoretical and experimental study of dilute atomic gases in condensed quantum states inside magnetic traps and optical lattices. This article offers a short survey on mathematical models and theories as well as numerical methods for BEC based on the mean field theory. We start with the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) in three dimensions (3D) for modeling one-component BEC of the weakly interacting bosons, scale it to obtain a three-parameter model and show how to reduce it to two dimensions (2D) and one dimension (1D) GPEs in certain limiting regimes. Mathematical theories and numerical methods for ground states and dynamics of BEC are provided. Extensions to GPE with an angular momentum rotation term for a rotating BEC, to GPE with long-range anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction for a dipolar BEC and to coupled GPEs for spin-orbit coupled BECs are discussed. Finally, some conclusions are drawn and future research perspectives are discussed.