Quantum criticality emerges when the collective fluctuations of matter undergo a continuous phase transition at zero temperature and has been a research focus in conventional condensed-matter physics over the past several decades. In the quantum critical regime, the exotic and universal properties are expected. These properties are independent of the microscopic details of the system, but depend only on a few general properties of the system, such as its dimensionality and the symmetry of the order parameter. The research of quantum criticality can not only help us to understand quantum phase transitions, but also provide a novel route to new material design and discovery.Ultracold bosonic gases have provided a clean system for studying the quantum critical phenomena. The critical behavior of a weakly interacting three-dimensional (3D) Bose gas should be identical to that of 4He at the superfluid transition, which belongs to the 3D XY universality class. From the normal fluid to the superfluid, the system undergoes a phase transition from completely disorder to long-range order, while in the vicinity of the phase transition point, the system parameters will show some singularity characteristics. In this paper, we observe the critical behavior of 87Rb Bose gas in a quadrupole-Ioffe configuration (QUIC) trap near the phase transition temperature Tc. A novel singularity behavior of the full width at half maximum of momentum distribution (FWHMMD) of atomic gas is discovered in the experiment. Prior to our experiment, we prepare a sample with 7.8105 87Rb atoms in the 5S1/2 |F=2, mF=2 state. Then the sample is held in a QUIC trap for a presetting period of time to control the temperature of atom sample precisely. During the holding time, the sample is heated up due to background gas collisions or fluctuations of the trap potential. In our experiment, the heating rate is deduced to be 0.3480.078 nK/ms from the absorption image. For a bosonic gas in a harmonic trap, critical gas can only cover a finite-size region due to a spatially varying density. We define the finite-size region as a critical region determined by the Ginzburg criterion. Then the FWHMMDs of atomic gas in the critical region are measured for different temperatures near the critical point. To this aim, we first extract the momentum distribution of atomic gas from the absorption image of the atomic clouds released from the QIUC trap after free expansion. Thus momentum distribution of atomic gas in the critical region can be extracted from the absorption image by subtracting the momentum distribution of thermal gas outside the critical region. According to the statistical results of the FWHMMD at different temperatures, we find that the FWHMMD suddenly reduces, thus revealing a very notable singularity behavior when the temperature is very close to the phase transition temperature Tc.
Quantum criticality emerges when the collective fluctuations of matter undergo a continuous phase transition at zero temperature and has been a research focus in conventional condensed-matter physics over the past several decades. In the quantum critical regime, the exotic and universal properties are expected. These properties are independent of the microscopic details of the system, but depend only on a few general properties of the system, such as its dimensionality and the symmetry of the order parameter. The research of quantum criticality can not only help us to understand quantum phase transitions, but also provide a novel route to new material design and discovery.Ultracold bosonic gases have provided a clean system for studying the quantum critical phenomena. The critical behavior of a weakly interacting three-dimensional (3D) Bose gas should be identical to that of 4He at the superfluid transition, which belongs to the 3D XY universality class. From the normal fluid to the superfluid, the system undergoes a phase transition from completely disorder to long-range order, while in the vicinity of the phase transition point, the system parameters will show some singularity characteristics. In this paper, we observe the critical behavior of 87Rb Bose gas in a quadrupole-Ioffe configuration (QUIC) trap near the phase transition temperature Tc. A novel singularity behavior of the full width at half maximum of momentum distribution (FWHMMD) of atomic gas is discovered in the experiment. Prior to our experiment, we prepare a sample with 7.8105 87Rb atoms in the 5S1/2 |F=2, mF=2 state. Then the sample is held in a QUIC trap for a presetting period of time to control the temperature of atom sample precisely. During the holding time, the sample is heated up due to background gas collisions or fluctuations of the trap potential. In our experiment, the heating rate is deduced to be 0.3480.078 nK/ms from the absorption image. For a bosonic gas in a harmonic trap, critical gas can only cover a finite-size region due to a spatially varying density. We define the finite-size region as a critical region determined by the Ginzburg criterion. Then the FWHMMDs of atomic gas in the critical region are measured for different temperatures near the critical point. To this aim, we first extract the momentum distribution of atomic gas from the absorption image of the atomic clouds released from the QIUC trap after free expansion. Thus momentum distribution of atomic gas in the critical region can be extracted from the absorption image by subtracting the momentum distribution of thermal gas outside the critical region. According to the statistical results of the FWHMMD at different temperatures, we find that the FWHMMD suddenly reduces, thus revealing a very notable singularity behavior when the temperature is very close to the phase transition temperature Tc.
Ultra cold quantum gas is a convenient system to study fundamental questions of modern physics, such as phase transitions and critical phenomena. This master thesis is devoted to experimental investigation of the thermodynamics susceptibilities, such as the isothermal compressibility and the thermal expansion coefficient of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of 87Rb atoms. The critical phenomena and the critical exponents across the transition can explain the behavior of the isothermal compressibility and the thermal expansion coefficient near the critical temperature TC. By employing the developed formalism of global thermodynamics variables, we carry out a statistical treatment of Bose gas in a 3D harmonic potential. After that, comparison of obtained results reveals the most appropriate state variables describing the system, namely volume and pressure parameter V and Π respectively. The both are related with the confining frequencies and BEC density distribution. We apply this approach to define the set of new thermodynamic variables of BEC, and also to construct the isobaric phase diagram V T. Its allows us to extract the compressibility κT and the thermal expansion coefficient βΠ. The behavior of the isothermal compressibility corresponds to the second-order phase transition, while the thermal expansion coefficient around the critical point behaves as β ∼ tr-α, where tr is reduced temperature of the system and α is the critical exponent on the basic of these. Results we have obtained the critical exponent α = 0.15±0.09, which allows us to determine the system dimensionality by means of the scaling theory, relating the critical exponents with the dimensionality. As a result, we found out that the dimensionality of the system to be d ∼ 3, one is in agreement with the real dimension of the system.
The study of second-order phase transitions is a broad research theme that provides fundamental insights into the physical nature of complex systems. A central aspect deals with the concept of universal behavior. Universality governs, for example, the diverging correlated fluctuations of an order parameter, characterized by a macroscopic correlation length ξ, as well as the divergence of other thermodynamic quantities near the critical point. Extracting the critical exponents associated with these diverging quantities shows that quite different physical systems can exhibit identical scaling behavior, placing them into common universality classes. Bose-Einstein condensation of an ideal (i.e., non-interacting) gas of bosons is a second-order phase transition, and thus provides a valuable platform to investigate universal critical behavior in the quantum gas regime, driven purely by quantum statistics rather than inter-particle interactions. While historically studied in ultracold atomic and molecular gases, Bose-Einstein condensation can now be realized in a two-dimensional photonic gas at room temperature using dye-filled microcavities. The microcavity imposes a low-energy cutoff, providing a non-vanishing ground state and an effective mass for the intracavity photons, which thermalize via repeated absorption and emission processes with the dye reservoir rather than inter-particle interactions. Consequently, this platform establishes an almost perfectly ideal, two-dimensional quantum gas of light. In combination with versatile trapping techniques, it provides a highly tunable platform to explore the thermodynamics of quantum gases. This thesis presents a quantitative study of spatial correlations in a uniformly trapped two-dimensional photon gas. The uniform confinement is achieved by a custom mirror-structuring technique, resulting in box-like trapping potentials. The temporal and spatial coherence properties of the gas are validated in both the thermal and condensed regimes using an interferometric measurement technique. Because the applicability of scanning interferometry limits measurements of critical scaling behavior, an alternative method is introduced to extract the first-order spatial coherence directly from the far-field angular distribution of the cavity emission in a single experimental shot. This technique enables the extraction of the spatial correlation length ξ and a precise evaluation of its scaling behavior in the vicinity of the critical point Nc. The measurements presented here demonstrate, for the first time, the determination of a critical exponent in the (ideal) Bose gas universality class. The obtained critical exponent of ν = 0.52 ± 0.04 for the two-dimensional ideal Bose gas is consistent with theoretical expectations. Crucially, this critical exponent is found to be robust and independent of the system size within experimental uncertainties, demonstrating the universality of the scaling behavior. Finally, the limits of this universal behavior are explored by demonstrating the breakdown of critical scaling when the thermalizing coupling between the photons and dye molecules in the cavity is reduced, driving the photon gas out of thermal equilibrium.
The transition from a thermal cloud to a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) in an interacting ultra-cold Bose gas is a prototype in a universality class of diverse phase transitions. For a trapped ultra-cold Bose gas, we were able to study the critical regime both above and below the critical temperature with a Talbot–Lau interferometer, observing a peak in the correlation length. From this peak, we managed to determine the universal critical exponents for this phase transition as well as the finite-size and interaction corrections to the critical temperature. The results are all in quantitative agreement with theory. This work demonstrates the potential application of the Talbot–Lau interferometer to a wide range of critical phase transitions in ultra-cold atomic gases.
Ultracold atomic gases may be the ultimate quantum simulator.These isolated systems have the lowest temperatures in the observable universe, and their properties and interactions can be precisely and accurately tuned across a full spectrum of behaviors, from few-body physics to highly-correlated many-body effects.The ability to impose potentials on and tune interactions within ultracold gases to mimic complex systems mean they could become a theorist's playground.One of their great strengths, however, is also one of the largest obstacles to this dream: isolation.This thesis touches on both of these themes.First, methods to characterize phases and quantum critical points, and to construct finite temperature phase diagrams using experimentally accessible observables in the Bose Hubbard model are discussed.Then, the transition from a weakly to a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture in the continuum is analyzed using zero temperature numerical techniques.Real materials can be emulated by ultracold atomic gases loaded into optical lattice potentials.We discuss the characteristics of a single boson species trapped in an optical lattice (described by the Bose Hubbard model) and the hallmarks of the quantum critical region that separates the superfluid and the Mott insulator ground states.We propose a method to map the quantum critical region using the single, experimentally accessible, local quantity R, the ratio of compressibility to local number fluctuations.The procedure to map a phase diagram with R is easily generalized to inhomogeneous systems and generic many-body Hamiltonians.We illustrate it here using quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the 2D Bose Hubbard model.Secondly, we investigate the transition from a degenerate Fermi gas weakly coupled List of Tables Table Page 2.1 Techniques to Probe Atoms in Optical Lattices . . . . . .
We investigate the universal thermodynamics of the two-component one-dimensional Bose gas with contact interactions in the vicinity of the quantum critical point separating the vacuum and the ferromagnetic liquid regime. We find that the quantum critical region belongs to the universality class of the spin-degenerate impenetrable particle gas which, surprisingly, is very different from the single-component case and identify its boundaries with the peaks of the specific heat. In addition, we show that the compressibility Wilson ratio, which quantifies the relative strength of thermal and quantum fluctuations, serves as a good discriminator of the quantum regimes near the quantum critical point. Remarkably, in the Tonks-Girardeau regime, the universal contact develops a pronounced minimum, reflected in a counterintuitive narrowing of the momentum distribution as we increase the temperature. This momentum reconstruction, also present at low and intermediate momenta, signals the transition from the ferromagnetic to the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid phase and can be detected in current experiments with ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices.
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.