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The ideal Bose gas in open harmonic trap systems and its condensation revisited.

Mathieu Beau, Baptiste Savoie

Published Jun 16, 2013• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We rigorously revisit a textbook model used to figure out the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) phenomenon created by dilute cold alkali atoms gases in a magnetic-optical trap. It consists of a d-dimensional (d=1,2,3) ideal non-relativistic spin-0 Bose gas confined in a box and trapped in an isotropic harmonic potential. Throughout we review and clarify a series of methods involved in the derivation of the thermodynamics in the grand-canonical situation. To make the derivation consistent with the usual rules of the statistical mechanics, we assign through our open-trap limit approach the role of canonical parameter to a rescaled number of particles (instead of an effective density involving the pulsation of the trap). Within this approach, we formulate an Einstein-like and Penrose-Onsager-like criterion of BEC and show their equivalence. Afterwards, we focus on the spatial localization of the condensate/thermal gas. When dealing with the reduced density matrix, our method is similar to the loop path approach.

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We rigorously revisit a textbook model used to figure out the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) phenomenon created by dilute cold alkali atoms gases in a magnetic-optical trap. It consists of a d-dimensional (d=1,2,3) ideal non-relativistic spin-0 Bose gas confined in a box and trapped in an isotropic harmonic potential. Throughout we review and clarify a series of methods involved in the derivation of the thermodynamics in the grand-canonical situation. To make the derivation consistent with the usual rules of the statistical mechanics, we assign through our open-trap limit approach the role of canonical parameter to a rescaled number of particles (instead of an effective density involving the pulsation of the trap). Within this approach, we formulate an Einstein-like and Penrose-Onsager-like criterion of BEC and show their equivalence. Afterwards, we focus on the spatial localization of the condensate/thermal gas. When dealing with the reduced density matrix, our method is similar to the loop path approach.
In this paper, we rigorously investigate the reduced density matrix (RDM) associated to the ideal Bose gas in harmonic traps. We present a method based on a sum-decomposition of the RDM allowing to treat not only the isotropic trap, but also general anisotropic traps. When focusing on the isotropic trap, the method is analogous to the loop-gas approach developed by Mullin [“The loop-gas approach to Bose-Einstein condensation for trapped particles,” Am. J. Phys. 68(2), 120 (2000)]. Turning to the case of anisotropic traps, we examine the RDM for some anisotropic trap models corresponding to some quasi-1D and quasi-2D regimes. For such models, we bring out an additional contribution in the local density of particles which arises from the mesoscopic loops. The close connection with the occurrence of generalized-Bose-Einstein condensation is discussed. Our loop-gas-like approach provides relevant information which can help guide numerical investigations on highly anisotropic systems based on the Path Integral Monte Carlo method.
In a recent paper [Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 14, 405 (2000)] we discussed the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in the framework of Tsallis’s nonextensive statistical mechanics. In particular, we studied an ideal gas of bosons in a confining harmonic potential. In this memoir we generalize our previous analysis by investigating an ideal Bose gas in a generic power-law external potential. We derive analytical formulas for the energy of the system, the BEC transition temperature and the condensed fraction. PACS numbers: 05.30-d; 03.75.Fi 1 Recently we analyzed the consequences of weak nonextensivity on Bose-Einstein Condensation for an ideal Bose gas 1 by using Tsallis’s nonextensive statistical mechanics (NSM). 2 From the nonextensive Bose-Einstein distribution 3−5 we derived the BEC transition temperature, the condensed fraction and the energy per particle in three different cases: the homogeneous gas, the gas in a harmonic trap and the relativistic homogenous gas. In this short contribution we generalize our previous results by considering the ideal Bose gas in a generic power-law potential. All the calculations are performed by assuming a D-dimensional space. The NSM predicts that, for an ideal quantum gas of identical bosons in the grand canonical ensemble, the weak nonextensivity formula of the average number of particles with energy ǫ is given by 〈n(ǫ)〉q = 1
We examine Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) for particles trapped in a harmonic potential by considering it as a transition in the length of permutation cycles that arise from wave-function symmetry. This “loop-gas” approach was originally developed by Feynman in his path-integral study of BEC for a homogeneous gas in a box. For the harmonic oscillator potential it is possible to treat the ideal gas exactly so that one can easily see how standard approximations become more accurate in the thermodynamic limit (TDL). One clearly sees that the condensate is made up of very long permutation loops whose length fluctuates ever more widely as the number of particles increases. In the TDL, the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation, equivalent to the standard approach to BEC, becomes precise for the noncondensate; however, this approximation neglects completely the long cycles that make up the condensate. We examine the exact form for the density matrix for the system and show how it describes the condensate and behaves in the TDL.
We analyze the general relation between canonical and grand canonical ensembles in the thermodynamic limit. We begin our discussion by deriving, with an alternative approach, some standard results first obtained by Kac and coworkers in the late 1970s. Then, motivated by the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of trapped gases with a fixed number of atoms, which is well described by the canonical ensemble and by the recent groundbreaking experimental realization of BEC with photons in a dye-filled optical microcavity under genuine grand canonical conditions, we apply our formalism to a system of non-interacting Bose particles confined in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. We discuss in detail the mathematical origin of the inequivalence of ensembles observed in the condensed phase, giving place to the so-called grand canonical catastrophe of density fluctuations. We also provide explicit analytical expressions for the internal energy and specific heat and compare them with available experimental data. For these quantities, we show the equivalence of ensembles in the thermodynamic limit.
Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of an ideal gas is investigated for a finite number of particles. In three dimensions, we find a transition temperature which is lower than in the thermodynamic limit. Lowering the dimension increases the transition temperature and is therefore favorable for BEC. This is in contrast to the standard result obtained in the thermodynamic limit which states that BEC is not possible in, e.g., a one-dimensional (1D) harmonic potential. As a result, 1D atom traps, such as radially tightly confining magnetic traps or optical dipole traps, are promising for studying BEC. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We analyze the thermodynamic limit—modeled as the open-trap limit of an isotropic harmonic potential—of an ideal, non-relativistic Bose gas with a special emphasis on the phenomenon of Bose–Einstein condensation. This is accomplished by the use of an asymptotic expansion of the grand potential, which is derived by ζ-regularization techniques. Herewith, we can show that the singularity structure of this expansion is directly interwoven with the phase structure of the system: In the non-condensation phase, the expansion has a form that resembles usual heat kernel expansions. By this, thermodynamic observables are directly calculable. In contrast, the expansion exhibits a singularity of infinite order above a critical density, and a renormalization of the chemical potential is needed to ensure well-defined thermodynamic observables. Furthermore, the renormalization procedure forces the system to exhibit condensation. In addition, we show that characteristic features of the thermodynamic limit, such as the critical density or the internal energy, are entirely encoded in the coefficients of the asymptotic expansion.