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Communications in Theoretical Physics

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Vacuum of Charged Relativistic Boson Condensate

Yang Zhang

Published Sep 15, 1998• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We study Bose–Einstein condensation of a charged relativistic boson system as a phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking. By using the Bogoliubov's quasi-average method, it is found that the vacuum expectation values of the scalar fields are nonvanishing, indicating the nonperturbative nature of the condensation. The vacuum of the condensate is explicitly constructed, which is a superposition of states with different charges. A relation is found between the vacuum and the Stagerstam's coherent states of definite charge.

DOI
10.1088/0253-6102/30/2/237

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We study Bose–Einstein condensation of a charged relativistic boson system as a phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking. By using the Bogoliubov's quasi-average method, it is found that the vacuum expectation values of the scalar fields are nonvanishing, indicating the nonperturbative nature of the condensation. The vacuum of the condensate is explicitly constructed, which is a superposition of states with different charges. A relation is found between the vacuum and the Stagerstam's coherent states of definite charge.
The realisation of Bose-Einstein condensation under grand-canonical conditions has provided the experimental evidence for the simultaneous occurrence of macroscopic fluctuations and phase coherence of the condensate. The observation of these two features, against a consolidated tradition which wants the fluctuations to be pathological (grand-canonical catastrophe) and incompatible with spontaneous symmetry braking, calls for a comprehensive rethinking of the approach to the problem. In this paper we consider the uniform ideal gas in a box and we present an alternative conceptual framework. We show that the usually-employed Bogoliubov quasi-average construction fails to reproduce the broken-symmetry state. The observed features are accounted for by a different pattern of spontaneous symmetry breaking, characterised by condensation of fluctuations and long-range correlations of the order parameter.
Based on Bogoliubov's truncated Hamiltonian H B for a weakly interacting Bose system, and adding a U(1) symmetry breaking term V 1/2 (λ a 0 +λ * a 0 + ) to H B , we show by using the coherent state theory and the mean-field approximation rather than the c-number approximations, that the Bose–Einstein condensation(BEC) occurs if and only if the U(1) symmetry of the system is spontaneously broken. The real ground state energy and the justification of the Bogoliubov c-number substitution are given by solving the Schrödinger eigenvalue equation and using the self-consistent condition.
The question of whether Bose-Einstein condensation involves spontaneous symmetry breaking is surprisingly controversial. We review the theory of spontaneous symmetry breaking in ferromagnets, compare it with the theory of symmetry breaking in condensates, and discuss the different viewpoints on the correspondence to experiments. These viewpoints include alternative perspectives in which we can treat condensates with fixed particle numbers, and where coherence arises from measurements. This question relates to whether condensates of quasiparticles such as polaritons can be viewed as “real” condensates. Introduction Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a deep subject in physics with long historical roots. At the most basic level, it arises in the field of cosmology. Physicists have long had an aesthetic principle that leads us to expect symmetry in the all of the basic equations of physical law. Yet the universe is manifestly full of asymmetries. How does a symmetric system acquire asymmetry merely by evolving in time? Starting in the 1950s, cosmologists began to borrow the ideas of spontaneous symmetry breaking from condensed matter physics, which were originally developed to explain spontaneous magnetization in ferromagnetic systems. Spontaneous coherence in all its forms (e.g., Bose-Einstein condensation [BEC], superconductivity, and lasing) can be viewed as another type of symmetry breaking. The Hamiltonian of the system is symmetric, yet under some conditions, the energy of the system can be reduced by putting the system into a state with asymmetry, namely, a state with a common phase for a macroscopic number of particles. The symmetry of the system implies that it does not matter what the exact choice of that phase is, as long as it is the same for all the particles. It is not obvious, however, whether the symmetry breaking which occurs in spontaneous coherence of the type seen in lasers or in Bose-Einstein condensation is the same as that seen in ferromagnetic systems. There are similarities in the systems which encourage the same view of all types of symmetry breaking, but there are also differences. In fact, there is a substantial school of thought that symmetry breaking in Bose-Einstein condensates with ultracold atoms is a “convenient fiction” (a term applied to optical coherence by Mølmer [1]).
In this work the Klein–Gordon equation for a complex scalar field with U(1) symmetry endowed in a mexican-hat scalar field potential with thermal and electromagnetic contributions is written as a Gross–Pitaevskii (GP)-like equation. This equation is interpreted as a charged generalization of the GP equation at finite temperatures found in previous works. Its hydrodynamical representation is obtained and the corresponding thermodynamical properties are derived and related to measurable quantities. The condensation temperature in the non-relativistic regime associated with the aforementioned system within the semiclassical approximation is calculated. Also, a generalized equation for the conservation of energy for a charged bosonic gas is found when electromagnetic fields are introduced, and it is studied how under certain circumstances its breaking of symmetry can give some insight on the phase transition of the system not just into the condensed phase but also on other related systems
Analysis based on the energy spectrum of noninteracting bosons shows that, under the circumstance of parallel rotation and magnetic field, charged bosons form a Bose-Einstein condensate because of the lift of the Landau level degeneracy by rotation [Y. Liu and I. Zahed, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 032001 (2018)]. In this work, we study the interaction effect on the ground state of this Bose-Einstein condensate of charged bosons from the viewpoint of spontaneous symmetry breaking. We employ a minimal model for charged bosons with repulsive self-interaction. We find that the ground state of such a Bose-Einstein condensate is a supergiant quantum vortex, i.e., a quantized vortex with a large circulation. The size of the vortex is as large as the system size. The low-energy dispersion of the excitation spectra exhibits quadratic behavior, which is an anisotropic realization of the type-II Goldstone boson. Our study may give some implications to off-central relativistic heavy ion collisions, where large vorticity and magnetic fields can be generated.
Abstract We study the effects of a uniform and constant magnetic field on the Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of relativistic charged scalar bosons. The condensation of magnetized charged bosons is usually discussed in the weak or strong field regimes separately, and in each case, the properties predicted for the condensate are different. Here, we develop a low‐temperature analysis suitable for any field that allows us to observe how the gas behaves for intermediate values of the magnetic field. We find that BEC may occur at finite magnetic fields, despite the gas becoming effectively one‐dimensional due to Landau quantization of the momentum perpendicular to the magnetic axis.