Feshbach resonances notwithstanding, most experimentally realized atomic-vapor condensates are dilute and are best described by the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation. For this reason, we use dimensional scaling methods to obtain an analytical approximation to the GP equation that is more accurate and flexible than the commonly used ground-state Thomas-Fermi approximation. We also demonstrate the power of dimensional perturbation theory by providing a full solution of a model BEC Hamiltonian and a two-electron quantum dot Hamiltonian. A feature shared by these examples is the high degree of accuracy provided by the lowest orders of the perturbation theory. In our approach to the full many-body BEC Hamiltonian, we use the lowest orders of many-body dimensional perturbation theory to obtain semi-analytical ground-state energies and collective excitation frequencies. Our many-body calculations for BEC's compare well with the Gross-Pitaevskii results in the weakly-interacting regime, as they should, and are much improved over mean-field theory predictions in the strongly-interacting regime.
Feshbach resonances notwithstanding, most experimentally realized atomic-vapor condensates are dilute and are best described by the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation. For this reason, we use dimensional scaling methods to obtain an analytical approximation to the GP equation that is more accurate and flexible than the commonly used ground-state Thomas-Fermi approximation. We also demonstrate the power of dimensional perturbation theory by providing a full solution of a model BEC Hamiltonian and a two-electron quantum dot Hamiltonian. A feature shared by these examples is the high degree of accuracy provided by the lowest orders of the perturbation theory. In our approach to the full many-body BEC Hamiltonian, we use the lowest orders of many-body dimensional perturbation theory to obtain semi-analytical ground-state energies and collective excitation frequencies. Our many-body calculations for BEC's compare well with the Gross-Pitaevskii results in the weakly-interacting regime, as they should, and are much improved over mean-field theory predictions in the strongly-interacting regime.
We present semianalytical many-body results for energies and excitation frequencies for an inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate over a wide range of atom numbers N for both small s-wave scattering lengths, typical of most laboratory experiments, and large scattering lengths, achieved by tuning through a Feshbach resonance. Our dimensional perturbation treatment includes two-body correlations at all orders and yields analytical results through first order by taking advantage of the high degree of symmetry of the condensate at the zeroth-order limit. Because N remains a parameter in our analytical results, the challenge of calculating energies and excitation frequencies does not rise with the number of condensate atoms. In this proof-of-concept paper the atoms are confined in a spherical trap and are treated as hard spheres. Our many-body calculations compare well to Gross-Pitaevskii results in the weakly interacting regime and depart from the mean-field approximation as the density approaches the strongly interacting regime. The excitation frequencies provide a particularly sensitive test of beyond-mean-field corrections. For example, for N=2000 atoms and an experimentally realized large scattering length of $a=0.433{a}_{ho}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}({a}_{ho}=\sqrt{\ensuremath{\hbar}∕m{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{ho}})$ we predict a 75 shift from the mean-field breathing mode frequency.
The experimental discovery of dilute ultracold quantum gases in 1995 has instigated a broad interest in ultracold atoms and molecules, and paved the way for extensive studies of a wide range of both experimental and theoretical topics. Various theories were developed to describe Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) for different ranges of temperature and interaction strengths. This thesis focuses on studying the mean-field theory of the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation which provides a good description for the macroscopic wave function when both quantum and thermal fluctuations are negligible. This means that the range of validity is restricted to small interaction strengths at zero temperature. Within the GP theory we study analytically and numerically the nonlinear dynamics of BECs which are induced by a harmonic modulation of either the interaction strength or the harmonic trapping potential. At first a detailed numerical investigation reveals that solving the partial differential equation of Gross and Pitaevskii can be reduced to solving ordinary differential equations for the condensate widths within a Gaussian variational approach. Despite this tremendous simplification the prominent nonlinearity of the underlying GP equation is inherited by the variational equations, which thus allow to describe a rich variety of nonlinear phenomena in different experimental setups. In order to describe them analytically we transfer the Poincar\'e-Lindstedt method, which represents a well-established tool in the field of nonlinear dynamics, to the Gaussian variational approach. Modulation of some of the parameters of a BEC can give rise to prominent nonlinear features, such as shifts in the frequencies of collective oscillation modes, higher harmonics generation, and resonant mode coupling. As a first application we consider a recent Bose-Einstein condensate of Li-7, which has been excited experimentally by a harmonic modulation of the atomic s-wave scattering length with the help of a Feshbach resonance. Combining an analytical perturbative approach with extensive numerical simulations, we analyze the emerging nonlinear dynamics. In particular, we present the resulting shift of collective excitation spectra close to parametric resonances where the driving frequency coincides with a collective mode frequency. Another application of experimental importance is to study geometric resonances in BECs with two-body and three-body contact interactions, where changing the geometry of the trapping potential leads to commensurate collective excitation frequencies with emerging nonlinear effects such as frequency shifts and resonant mode coupling. In this context we also show that a small repulsive three-body interaction is able to extend the stability region of the condensate for an attractive two-body interaction as it increases the critical number of atoms in the trap. Apart from a periodic modulation of a system parameter the dipole mode frequency can be excited by introducing an abrupt change in the potential, where the center of mass oscillates according to the Kohn theorem back and forth in the trapping potential with the natural trap frequency irrespective of both the strength and the type of the two-particle interaction. To this end, we study the collective excitation modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic Ioffe- Pritchard in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance for experimentally realistic parameters of a Rb-85 BEC, where the dipole mode is excited in z-direction. A linearization of the underlying equations of motions shows that the dipole mode frequency decreases when the bias magnetic field approaches the Feshbach resonance, so the Kohn theorem is violated. Finally within a variational approach we discuss the physical properties of a BEC in an axially-symmetric harmonic trap with a single vortex in the center. At first we analyze the equilibrium configuration and determine the vortex size as well as the Thomas- Fermi radii of the condensate in the Thomas-Fermi limit. Then we calculate the critical rotation frequency for the emergence of the vortex and compare our findings with the literature. Finally, we investigate how the presence of the vortex changes the collective excitation frequencies and we discuss the free expansion of the BEC. All these results indicate how nonlinear dynamics properties could be made clearly observable in future experiments on the basis of our results.
We study the ground state energy of trapped two-dimensional Bose gases with mean-field type interactions that can be attractive. We prove the stability of second kind of the many-body system and the convergence of the ground state energy per particle to that of a non-linear Schrödinger (NLS) energy functional. Notably, we can take any polynomial scaling of the interaction, and even exponential scalings arbitrarily close to the Gross–Pitaevskii regime, which is a drastic improvement on the best-known result for systems with attractive interactions. As a consequence of the stability of second kind we also obtain Bose–Einstein condensation for the many-body ground states for a much improved range of the diluteness parameter.
We derive a unified set of scaling equations for Bose-Einstein condensates in time-dependent harmonic traps, connecting the weakly interacting Gaussian regime to the strongly interacting Thomas-Fermi regime. The exact Gross-Pitaevskii ground-state density is taken as a fixed profile in rescaled coordinates, with its dynamics described by three scaling factors corresponding to compression or expansion along the three spatial directions. The resulting equations contain no adjustable parameter, since their coefficients are determined once from the initial state. They recover analytically the Gaussian variational and Thomas-Fermi scaling equations in their respective limits and satisfy an axis-resolved virial theorem. The approach also yields the global phase and the low-lying collective-mode frequencies of the condensate. We benchmark the model against three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii simulations and against measured expansion energies. The model remains accurate across all interaction regimes, in strongly anisotropic traps, and along time-dependent sequences including a relatively fast quench, up to the point where the underlying frozen-profile hypothesis, shared by all three scaling approaches, breaks down.
Recent experiments have been moving ever closer to the goal of creating cold quantum-degenerate Bose gases in one and two dimensional systems. In this thesis we investigate such systems by adapting the mean-field theories used so successfully to describe Bose-Einstein condensates in the three dimensional case. We find that the key to describing the low dimensional systems lies in an accurate description of the interactions within those systems. In three dimensions the interactions may be well approximated by a simple form in which atoms are assumed to interact in a vacuum. Many-body effects on the scattering then lead to only a small perturbation. However, in one and two dimensions we find that the inclusion of many-body effects on the scattering is crucial, even for a first order calculation. We use a many-body T-matrix to describe the interactions, and develop a simple approximation in the zero-temperature limit that involves the off-shell two-body T-matrix evaluated at a shifted interaction energy. We therefore derive expressions for the off-shell two-body T-matrix in one, two, and three dimensions, and so find expressions for the coupling parameters which describe interactions in one and two dimensional Bose gases. These lead to interaction terms in the one and two dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equations which differ significantly from the three dimensional case. We present numerical solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in both one and two dimensions, and in one dimension we find that the results are in agreement with exact results in the extreme limits of the interaction strength. We also investigate higher order theories in the one-dimensional case, with a view to describing the cross-over from a weakly-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate to a quasicondensate as the interactions become stronger. Finally, we study the Bogoliubov-de Gennes excitation spectrum for a one dimensional condensate containing solitons. We show that it has an anomalous mode with a negative energy, and that this represents the collective motion of the soliton relative to the background condensate. (author)
In this paper we continue our development of a dimensional perturbation theory (DPT) treatment of N identical particles under quantum confinement. DPT is a beyond-mean-field method which is applicable to both weakly and strongly-interacting systems and can be used to connect both limits. In a previous paper we developed the formalism for low-order energies and excitation frequencies. This formalism has been applied to atoms, Bose-Einstein condensates and quantum dots. One major advantage of the method is that N appears as a parameter in the analytical expressions for the energy and so results for N up to a few thousand are easy to obtain. Other properties however, are also of interest, for example the density profile in the case of a BEC,and larger N results are desirable as well. The latter case requires us to go to higher orders in DPT. These calculations require as input zeroth-order wave functions and this paper, along with a subsequent paper, addresses this issue.