We show that the ground state of a spin-1 atomic condensate with antiferromagnetic interactions constitutes a useful resource for quantum metrology upon approaching the Heisenberg limit. Unlike a ferromagnetic condensate state where individual atomic spins are aligned in the same direction, the antiferromagnetic ground-state condensate is a condensate of spin-singlet atom pairs. The inherent correlation between paired atoms allows for parameter estimation at precisions beyond the standard quantum limit (SQL) for uncorrelated atoms. The degree of improvement over the SQL is measured by the scaled quantum Fisher information (QFI), whose dependence on the ratio of linear Zeeman shift
p to spin-dependent atomic interaction
c is studied. At a typical value of
p=0.4c, which corresponds to a magnetic field of $28.6\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{G}$ for
c=50h Hz (for
23Na atom condensate in the
F=1 state at a typical density of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{14}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$), the scaled QFI can reach $\ensuremath{\sim}0.48N$, which approaches the limit of
0.5N for the twin-Fock state ${|N/2\ensuremath{\rangle}}_{+}{|N/2\ensuremath{\rangle}}_{\ensuremath{-}}$. Our work encourages experimental efforts to reach the ground state of an antiferromagnetic condensate at a extremely low magnetic field.
The effect of atom losses on a homogeneous one-dimensional Bose gas lying within the quasi-condensate regime is investigated using a Monte Carlo wavefunction approach. The evolution of the system is calculated, conditioned by the loss sequence, namely the times of individual losses and the position of the removed atoms. We describe the gas within the linearized Bogoliubov approach. For each mode, we find that, for a given quantum trajectory, the state of the system converges towards a coherent state, i.e. the ground state, displaced in phase space. Provided losses are recorded with a temporal and spatially resolved detector, we show that quantum feedback can be implemented and cooling to the ground state of one or several modes can be realized.
The effect of atom losses on a homogeneous one-dimensional Bose gas lying within the quasicondensate regime is investigated using a Monte Carlo wave-function approach. The evolution of the system is calculated, conditioned by the loss sequence, namely, the times of individual losses and the position of the removed atoms. We describe the gas within the linearized Bogoliubov approach. For each mode, we find that, for a given quantum trajectory, the state of the system converges towards a coherent state, i.e., the ground state, displaced in phase space. We show that, provided losses are recorded with a temporal and spatially resolved detector, quantum feedback can be implemented and cooling to the ground state of one or several modes can be realized.