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BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION AND SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING 1

Élliott H. Lieb, Robert Seiringer, Jakob Yngvason

Published Jan 1, 2007• 12 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

After recalling briefly the connection between spontaneous symmetry breaking and off-diagonal long range order for models of magnets a general proof of spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetry as a consequence of Bose-Einstein Condensation is presented. The proof is based on a rigorous validation of Bogoliubov’s c-number substitution for the k = 0 mode operator a 0.

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arXiv:1410.7058•Fluctuation and Noise Letters•Jan 17, 2017•4 citations
After recalling briefly the connection between spontaneous symmetry breaking and off-diagonal long range order for models of magnets a general proof of spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetry as a consequence of Bose-Einstein Condensation is presented. The proof is based on a rigorous validation of Bogoliubov’s c-number substitution for the k = 0 mode operator a 0.
The Bogoliubov Model of the Weakly Nonideal Bose Gas In this chapter we review the basic theory of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of excitons. To start, this means we must review the basic theory of BEC of any kind of particle, the theory known as the Bogoliubov model, after the foundational contributions made by N. N. Bogoliubov. This model introduces all the strange things associated with BEC: spontaneous symmetry breaking, off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO), macroscopic occupation of a single quantum state, etc. It is often said that physicists who spend years studying quantum mechanics eventually warp their intuition so much that things like ODLRO seem normal. It is well worth stepping back every now and then to think about just how strange a Bose condensate is. First, consider the idea of spontaneous symmetry breaking. Many systems exist in which the underlying physics, expressed in the Hamiltonian, do not favor one state over another. The a priori probability of occupation of the different states by a particle is equal, i.e., symmetric. Nevertheless, in some cases, thermodynamics requires that a macroscopic number of particles must somehow “choose” one of the states preferentially. If they did not, the system would not be in equilibrium, i.e, could not have a definable temperature. If the particles preferentially choose one state, then the underlying symmetry has been broken. In the context of magnets, the breaking of the symmetry of the magnet (to have all its constituent dipoles lined up one way and not another) is energetically favored, since there are terms in the Hamiltonian that give lower energy for aligned dipoles, e.g., μS 1 · S 2 .
Based on Bogoliubov's truncated Hamiltonian H B for a weakly interacting Bose system, and adding a U(1) symmetry breaking term V 1/2 (λ a 0 +λ * a 0 + ) to H B , we show by using the coherent state theory and the mean-field approximation rather than the c-number approximations, that the Bose–Einstein condensation(BEC) occurs if and only if the U(1) symmetry of the system is spontaneously broken. The real ground state energy and the justification of the Bogoliubov c-number substitution are given by solving the Schrödinger eigenvalue equation and using the self-consistent condition.
Adding a gauge symmetry breaking field $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\nu}\sqrt{V}({a}_{0}+{a}_{0}^{*})$ to the Hamiltonian of some simplified models of an interacting Bose gas we compute the condensate density and the symmetry breaking order parameter in the limit of infinite volume and prove Bogoliubov's asymptotic hypothesis ${\mathrm{lim}}_{V\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}}⟨{a}_{0}⟩∕\sqrt{V}=\mathrm{sgn}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\nu}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{lim}}_{V\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}}\sqrt{⟨{a}_{0}^{*}{a}_{0}⟩∕V}$ where the averages are taken in the ground state or in thermal equilibrium states. Letting $\ensuremath{\nu}$ tend to zero in this equation we obtain that Bose-Einstein condensation occurs if and only if the gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken. The simplification consists in dropping the off-diagonal terms in the momentum representation of the pair interaction. The models include the mean field and the imperfect (Huang-Yang-Luttinger) Bose gas. An implication of the result is that the compressibility sum rule cannot hold true in the ground state of the one-dimensional mean-field Bose gas. Our method is based on a resolution of the Hamiltonian into a family of single-mode (k=0)(\mathbf{k}=0)(k=0) Hamiltonians and on the analysis of the associated microcanonical ensembles.
The fundamental problem is analyzed, the relation between Bose-Einstein condensation and spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking. This relation is largerly misunderstood in physics community. Numerous articles and books contain the statement that, though gauge symmetry breaking helps for describing Bose-Einstein condensation, but the latter, in principle, does not require any symmetry breaking. This, however, is not correct. The analysis is based on the known mathematical theorems. But in order not to overcomplicate the presentation and to make it accessible to all readers, technical details are often omitted here. The emphasis is made on the following basic general facts: Spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetry is the necessary and sufficient condition for Bose-Einstein condensation. Condensate fluctuations, in thermodynamic limit, are negligible. Their catastrophic behavior can arise only as a result of incorrect calculations, when a Bose-condensed system is described without gauge symmetry breaking. It is crucially important to employ the representative statistical ensembles equipped with all conditions that are necessary for a unique and mathematically correct description of the given statistical system. Only then one is able to develop a self-consistent theory, free of paradoxes.
The interplay between spontaneously broken gauge symmetries and Bose–Einstein condensation has long been controversially discussed in science, since the equations of motion are invariant under phase transformations. Within the present model, it is illustrated that spontaneous symmetry breaking appears as a non-local process in position space, but within disjoint subspaces of the underlying Hilbert space. Numerical simulations show that it is the symmetry of the relative phase distribution between condensate and non-condensate quantum fields which is spontaneously broken when passing the critical temperature for Bose–Einstein condensation. Since the total number of gas particles remains constant over time, the global U(1)-gauge symmetry of the system is preserved.