The ground state of a quantum system is the minimizer of the total energy of that system. The aim of this thesis is to present and numerically solve the Gross-Pitaevskii eigenvalue problem (GPE) as a physical model for the formation of ground states of dilute Bose gases at ultra-low temperatures in a disordered potential. The first part of the report introduces the quantum mechanical phenomenon that arises at ground states of the Bose gases; the Anderson localization, and presents the nonlinear eigenvalue problem and the finite element method (FEM) used to discretize the GPE. The numerical method used to solve the eigenvalue problem for the smallest eigenvalue is called the inverse power iteration method, which is presented and explained. In the second part of the report, the smallest eigenvalue of a linear Schrödinger equation is compared with the numerically computed smallest eigenvalue (ground state) in order to evaluate the accuracy of a linear numerical scheme constructed as first step for numerically solving the non-linear problem. In the next part of the report, the numerical methods are implemented to solve for the eigenvalue and eigenfunction of the (non-linear) GPE at ground state (smallest eigenvalue). The mathematical expression for the quantum energy and smallest eigenvalue of the non-linear system are presented in the report. The methods used to solve the GPE are the FEM and inverse power iteration method and different instances of the Anderson localization are produced. The study shows that the error of the smallest eigenvalue approximation for the linear case without disorder is satisfying when using FEM and Power iteration method. The accuracy of the approximation obtained for the linear case without disorder is satisfying, even for a low numbers of iterations. The methods require many more iterations for solving the GPE with a strong disorder. On the other hand, pronounced instances of Anderson localizations are produced in a certain scaling regime. The study shows that the GPE indeed works well as a physical model for the Anderson localization.
The ground state of a quantum system is the minimizer of the total energy of that system. The aim of this thesis is to present and numerically solve the Gross-Pitaevskii eigenvalue problem (GPE) as a physical model for the formation of ground states of dilute Bose gases at ultra-low temperatures in a disordered potential. The first part of the report introduces the quantum mechanical phenomenon that arises at ground states of the Bose gases; the Anderson localization, and presents the nonlinear eigenvalue problem and the finite element method (FEM) used to discretize the GPE. The numerical method used to solve the eigenvalue problem for the smallest eigenvalue is called the inverse power iteration method, which is presented and explained. In the second part of the report, the smallest eigenvalue of a linear Schrödinger equation is compared with the numerically computed smallest eigenvalue (ground state) in order to evaluate the accuracy of a linear numerical scheme constructed as first step for numerically solving the non-linear problem. In the next part of the report, the numerical methods are implemented to solve for the eigenvalue and eigenfunction of the (non-linear) GPE at ground state (smallest eigenvalue). The mathematical expression for the quantum energy and smallest eigenvalue of the non-linear system are presented in the report. The methods used to solve the GPE are the FEM and inverse power iteration method and different instances of the Anderson localization are produced. The study shows that the error of the smallest eigenvalue approximation for the linear case without disorder is satisfying when using FEM and Power iteration method. The accuracy of the approximation obtained for the linear case without disorder is satisfying, even for a low numbers of iterations. The methods require many more iterations for solving the GPE with a strong disorder. On the other hand, pronounced instances of Anderson localizations are produced in a certain scaling regime. The study shows that the GPE indeed works well as a physical model for the Anderson localization.
In this paper, we mainly review recent results on mathematical theory andnumerical methods for Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC),based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE). Starting from the simplest case with one-component BEC of the weakly interacting bosons, we study the reduction of GPE to lower dimensions, the ground states of BEC including the existence and uniqueness as well as nonexistence results, and the dynamics of GPE including dynamical laws, well-posedness of the Cauchy problem as well as the finite time blow-up. To compute the ground state, the gradient flow with discrete normalization (or imaginary time) method is reviewed and various full discretization methods are presented and compared. To simulate the dynamics, both finite difference methods and time splitting spectral methods are reviewed, and their error estimates are briefly outlined. When the GPE has symmetric properties, we show how to simplify the numerical methods. Then we compare two widely used scalings, i.e. physical scaling (commonly used) and semiclassical scaling, for BEC in strong repulsive interaction regime (Thomas-Fermi regime), and discuss semiclassical limits of the GPE. Extensions of these results for one-component BEC are thencarried out for rotating BEC by GPE with an angular momentum rotation, dipolar BEC by GPE with long range dipole-dipole interaction, and two-component BEC by coupled GPEs. Finally, as a perspective, we show briefly the mathematical models forspin-1 BEC, Bogoliubov excitation and BEC at finite temperature.
The achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in ultracold vapors of alkali atoms has given enormous impulse to the theoretical and experimental study of dilute atomic gases in condensed quantum states inside magnetic traps and optical lattices. This article offers a short survey on mathematical models and theories as well as numerical methods for BEC based on the mean field theory. We start with the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) in three dimensions (3D) for modeling one-component BEC of the weakly interacting bosons, scale it to obtain a three-parameter model and show how to reduce it to two dimensions (2D) and one dimension (1D) GPEs in certain limiting regimes. Mathematical theories and numerical methods for ground states and dynamics of BEC are provided. Extensions to GPE with an angular momentum rotation term for a rotating BEC, to GPE with long-range anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction for a dipolar BEC and to coupled GPEs for spin-orbit coupled BECs are discussed. Finally, some conclusions are drawn and future research perspectives are discussed.
This paper studies the localization behavior of Bose--Einstein condensates in disorder potentials, modeled by a Gross--Pitaevskii eigenvalue problem on a bounded interval. In the regime of weak particle interaction, we are able to quantify exponential localization of the ground state, depending on statistical parameters and the strength of the potential. Numerical studies further show delocalization if we leave the identified parameter range, which is in agreement with experimental data. These mathematical and numerical findings allow the prediction of physically relevant regimes where localization of ground states may be observed experimentally.
This PhD thesis contains new results on the mathematical study of Bose-Einstein condensation and the main part of it is devoted to mixtures of condensates, i.e., systems composed of multiple bosonic species in interaction. We prove the validity of effective ground state theories for mixtures in the Gross-Pitaevskii and mean-field regime. We show that the ground state energy asymptotics, in the large-N limit, is captured by the minimum of a suitable one-body functional. Moreover, we prove that in the ground state all species exhibit Bose-Einstein condensation onto the minimizer of that functional. For mixtures in the mean-field regime, we provide a rigorous justification of Bogoliubov’s theory. This is done by computing the contribution to the ground state energy which is due to excited particles. We also prove a norm approximation for the ground state vector, in the Fock space norm. From the time-dependent viewpoint, we prove for the first time the validity of the effective equations that were previously known due to heuristic physical arguments, and that are confirmed by robust experimental evidence. Our results show that, for mixtures in the Gross-Pitaevskii and mean-field regime, the effective dynamics is governed by a system of non-linear Schrödinger equations, one for each species of the mixture. In the final part of the thesis we present additional results on problems and models related to the study on mixtures. We were able to derive the effective dynamics for spinor- and pseudo-spinor condensates. The equations that we obtain are precisely those of modern experiments with ultra-cold spin bosons. We also show that the mean-field model provide a time-dependent control of condensation that is very accurate for the typical duration times of experiments. A further result is the global well-posedness in the energy space of the singular Hartree equation. Last, we present new remarks on the adaptation of known techniques that one needs in order to prove the derivation of the magnetic Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
Quantum systems consisting of many particles are both interesting from the physics and the mathematics perspective. One aspect that makes them fascinating from the physics point of view is that they can exhibit quantum effects on macroscopic scales such as Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon, first predicted 100 years ago by Bose [19] and Einstein [44], occurs when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled down to very low temperatures. Below a certain critical temperature a condensate forms, meaning that a macroscopic fraction of the particles is in the same one-particle state, and thus, quantum phenomena become relevant on length scales much larger than the individual atom. The occurrence of Bose-Einstein condensation is also related to superfluidity as suggested in [88]. Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved experimentally independently by the groups of Cornell and Wieman [3] and Ketterle [40] earning them a Nobel prize in 2001. While Bose and Einstein analyzed theoretically the non-interacting gas, an effective theory describing weakly interacting Bose gases was proposed by Bogoliubov in 1947 with the goal of explaining the occurrence of superfluidity in liquid helium [18]. Using assumptions such as that condensation indeed occurs, his theory yields predictions for the low-energy states of the system. Seen from the mathematics perspective, describing the Bose gas is an interesting challenge due to the strong correlations between particles introduced by the interaction making this case much harder to study than the non-interacting one. In particular, a proof that Bose-Einstein condensation occurs in the thermodynamic limit for continuous systems is still out of reach. However, there has been a lot of work regarding the rigorous analysis of bosonic systems in various relevant regimes. This thesis contains three new contributions establishing rigorous results on bosonic systems in different, physically relevant settings. It is based on the articles [37, 27, 31]. The first result concerns the time-evolution of initially trapped Bose gases in the ultra-dilute Gross-Pitaevskii regime. Under some assumptions on the initial data satisfied in particular by a class of states that are expected to approximate the ground state in a trap, we derive a quasi-free approximation that is close to the true solution in L2-norm. In particular, we show that this approximate wave function is described in terms of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-particle state following the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation together with pair excitations with respect to this condensate. As a corollary, we establish a central limit theorem for bounded one-particle observables. The second result is a simple proof of Bose-Einstein condensation for interacting, ultra-dilute gases. More specifically, we consider scalings interpolating between the Gross-Pitaevskii regime and the thermodynamic limit. While condensation had been shown to hold in these regimes before, the advantage of the method used here is its simplicity. Lastly, the third result establishes an upper bound on the ground state energy of a dilute Bose gas in the thermodynamic limit. It captures rigorously the third order correction to the energy per unit volume for sufficiently low densities as predicted in the physics literature first by Wu and subsequently others. Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01
We examine the one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii lattice at zero temperature in the presence of uncorrelated disorder. We obtain analytical expressions for the thermodynamic properties of the ground state field and compare them with numerical simulations both in the low- and high-density regimes. We analyze weak excitations above the ground state and compute the localization properties of Bogoliubov--de Gennes modes. In the long-wavelength limit, these modes delocalize in accordance with the extended nature of the ground state. For high densities, we observe and derive a divergence of their localization length at finite energy due to an effective correlated disorder induced by the weak ground state field fluctuations. We derive effective high-density field equations for the excitations and generalize to higher dimensions.