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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

The stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation

Crispin W. Gardiner, J. R. Anglin, T I A Fudge

Published Mar 13, 2002• 164 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show how to adapt the ideas of local energy and momentum conservation in order to derive modifications to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation which can be used phenomenologically to describe irreversible effects in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Our approach involves the derivation of a simplified quantum kinetic theory, in which all processes are treated locally. It is shown that this kinetic theory can then be transformed into a number of phase-space representations, of which the Wigner function description, although approximate, is shown to be the most advantageous. In this description, the quantum kinetic master equation takes the form of a Gross-Pitaevskii equation with noise and damping added according to a well defined prescription - an equation we call the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation . From this, a very simplified description we call the phenomenological growth equation can be derived. We use this equation to study (i) the nucleation and growth of vortex lattices, and (ii) nonlinear losses in a hydrogen condensate, which it is shown can lead to a curious instability phenomenon.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/35/6/310

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We show how to adapt the ideas of local energy and momentum conservation in order to derive modifications to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation which can be used phenomenologically to describe irreversible effects in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Our approach involves the derivation of a simplified quantum kinetic theory, in which all processes are treated locally. It is shown that this kinetic theory can then be transformed into a number of phase-space representations, of which the Wigner function description, although approximate, is shown to be the most advantageous. In this description, the quantum kinetic master equation takes the form of a Gross-Pitaevskii equation with noise and damping added according to a well defined prescription - an equation we call the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation . From this, a very simplified description we call the phenomenological growth equation can be derived. We use this equation to study (i) the nucleation and growth of vortex lattices, and (ii) nonlinear losses in a hydrogen condensate, which it is shown can lead to a curious instability phenomenon.
We show how to adapt the ideas of local energy and momentum conservation in order to derive modifications to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation which can be used phenomenologically to describe irreversible effects in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Our approach involves the derivation of a simplified quantum kinetic theory, in which all processes are treated locally. It is shown that this kinetic theory can then be transformed into a number of phase-space representations, of which the Wigner function description, although approximate, is shown to be the most advantageous. In this description, the quantum kinetic master equation takes the form of a GPE with noise and damping added according to a well-defined prescription--an equation we call the stochastic GPE. From this, a very simplified description we call the phenomenological growth equation can be derived. We use this equation to study i) the nucleation and growth of vortex lattices, and ii) nonlinear losses in a hydrogen condensate, which it is shown can lead to a curious instability phenomenon.
We provide a derivation of a more accurate version of the stochastic Gross– Pitaevskii equation, as introduced by Gardiner et al (2002 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 35 1555). This derivation does not rely on the concept of local energy and momentum conservation and is based on a quasiclassical Wigner function representation of a ‘high temperature ’ master equation for a Bose gas, which includes only modes below an energy cut-off ER that are sufficiently highly occupied (the condensate band). The modes above this cut-off (the non-condensate band) are treated as being essentially thermalized. The interaction between these two bands, known as growth and scattering processes, provides noise and damping terms in the equation of motion for the condensate band, which we call the stochastic Gross–Pitaevskii equation. This approach is distinguished by the control of the approximations made in its derivation and by the feasibility of its numerical implementation. 1.
We provide a derivation of a more accurate version of the stochastic Gross–Pitaevskii equation, as introduced by Gardiner et al ( 2002 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 35 1555 ). This derivation does not rely on the concept of local energy and momentum conservation and is based on a quasiclassical Wigner function representation of a 'high temperature' master equation for a Bose gas, which includes only modes below an energy cut-off E R that are sufficiently highly occupied (the condensate band). The modes above this cut-off (the non-condensate band) are treated as being essentially thermalized. The interaction between these two bands, known as growth and scattering processes, provides noise and damping terms in the equation of motion for the condensate band, which we call the stochastic Gross–Pitaevskii equation. This approach is distinguished by the control of the approximations made in its derivation and by the feasibility of its numerical implementation.
Providing a complete description of dissipative superfluid dynamics is one of the major challenges of many-body quantum field theory. In this thesis we make a fundamental step towards this goal by implementing the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaevskii equation (SPGPE) in complete form for the first time. The SPGPE is a high-temperature theory of Bose-Einstein condensate dynamics, providing a classical-field description of a low-energy subspace in contact with a thermal reservoir. The reservoir interaction terms account for dissipation and noise from thermal interactions, and arise from two distinct processes described as number-damping and energy-damping. This work advances previous applications of the SPGPE theory, which have only included number-damping processes, by implementing the energy-damping processes. We describe the properties of the deterministic and noise terms corresponding to the energy-damping process, and develop a novel algorithm to accurately and efficiently evaluate the energy-damping terms in the SPGPE. We apply the SPGPE to a range of experimentally accessible systems, considering both non-equilibrium and quasi-equilibrium dynamics. We model the experiment of Neely et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 235301 (2013)], where stirring of a toroidally trapped Bose-Einstein condensate generates a disordered array of quantum vortices that decay, via thermal dissipation, to form a macroscopic persistent current. We perform numerical simulations of the experiment using the number-damping SPGPE and ab initio determined reservoir parameters. We quantitatively reproduce both the formation time and size of the persistent current, as measured in the experiment. In the first application of the full SPGPE, we consider the non-equilibrium dynamics of a condensate excited into a large-amplitude breathing mode. We find that in such non-equilibrium regimes, the energy-damping dominates over the number-damping process, leading to qualitatively different system dynamics. In particular, energy damping causes the system to rapidly reach thermal equilibrium without greatly depleting the condensate, showing that energy damping provides a highly coherent dissipation mechanism. Finally, we apply the SPGPE to the quasi-equilibrium dynamics of single-vortex decay. Energy-damping processes have previously been neglected for this system. SPGPE simulations show that in fact energy-damping has a dominant effect on the lifetime of a single vortex, with lifetimes less than half those predicted by the number-damping SPGPE. In contrast to the breathing mode decay, we observe little qualitative difference between the energy-damping and number-damping descriptions of vortex decay. Our findings show that while energy-damping processes are important to quantitatively describe quasi-equilibrium dynamics, the system behavior may be described by the number-damping SPGPE with a suitably modified dissipation rate.
A generalised stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation describing a partially condensed trapped Bose gas with rotating thermal component is presented. We elucidate the manner in which the rotation changes the role of the high energy cutoff and introduces centrifugal effects in the classical field evolution. The rotation of the cloud means that Bose-enhanced collision processes occur preferentially into states with the same angular momentum as the thermal cloud, thus favouring vortex formation. We use the formalism to obtain a first principles theory of vortex lattice formation caused by thermodynamic instability.
We derive a new damping mechanism in the open quantum systems description of Bose-Einstein condensates. It stems from previously neglected terms in the derivation of the stochastic projective Gross-Pitaevskii equation (SPGPE), accounting for a nonlinear evaporation of particles from the coherent into the incoherent region. We demonstrate that the mechanism, while so far assumed to be of minor importance, is comparable in strength to the widely employed number damping. We also provide a simplified (pseudo)-local and a dimensionally reduced form of this evaporative damping. The process completes the SPGPE description of ultracold Bose gases giving a full first-principles picture of their evolution at finite temperature.