Ultra-cold spinor Bose gases present rich physics due to the special combination of superfluidity and magnetism in a quantum system. This system was first realized in 1998 by confining a Bose-Einstein condensate in an all-optical trap.\nIn this thesis, we consider the fluctuations of observable quantities in a spin-1 Bose gas. Understanding how fluctuations arise due to the spin excitations of the condensate is important because it offers an insight into how measurement noise reveals the many-body physics of the system.\nTo begin, we present the mean-field and Bogoliubov theory of a uniform spin-1 Bose gas subject to a constant magnetic field, describing the condensate and its low-energy collective excitations.\nWe then develop a formalism to describe the fluctuations in a general density-like observable. We start from the two-point correlation function and cast it in the form of a generalised static structure factor determined by the three Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitation branches. We derive analytic results for the fluctuation amplitudes and the temperature-dependent static structure factors for observables of total density and the three spin densities.\nFor all four magnetic phases, we analyse the spinor order parameter and quasiparticle spectra while numerically mapping out the fluctuation amplitudes and static structure factors for the total and spin density operators.\nWe describe the fluctuations in experimental measurements made within finite cells, which is an important step to making meaningful predictions for experiments. We consider cylindrical cells and gaussian cells as two limiting cases. We apply this analysis to an experimentally realisable system of a quasi-2D spinor gas in a harmonic trap, comparing extensive numeric results with analytic limits.
Ultra-cold spinor Bose gases present rich physics due to the special combination of superfluidity and magnetism in a quantum system. This system was first realized in 1998 by confining a Bose-Einstein condensate in an all-optical trap.\nIn this thesis, we consider the fluctuations of observable quantities in a spin-1 Bose gas. Understanding how fluctuations arise due to the spin excitations of the condensate is important because it offers an insight into how measurement noise reveals the many-body physics of the system.\nTo begin, we present the mean-field and Bogoliubov theory of a uniform spin-1 Bose gas subject to a constant magnetic field, describing the condensate and its low-energy collective excitations.\nWe then develop a formalism to describe the fluctuations in a general density-like observable. We start from the two-point correlation function and cast it in the form of a generalised static structure factor determined by the three Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitation branches. We derive analytic results for the fluctuation amplitudes and the temperature-dependent static structure factors for observables of total density and the three spin densities.\nFor all four magnetic phases, we analyse the spinor order parameter and quasiparticle spectra while numerically mapping out the fluctuation amplitudes and static structure factors for the total and spin density operators.\nWe describe the fluctuations in experimental measurements made within finite cells, which is an important step to making meaningful predictions for experiments. We consider cylindrical cells and gaussian cells as two limiting cases. We apply this analysis to an experimentally realisable system of a quasi-2D spinor gas in a harmonic trap, comparing extensive numeric results with analytic limits.
We consider the total density and spin density fluctuations of a uniform spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate within the Bogoliubov formalism. We present results for the total density and spin density static structure factors for all four magnetic phases. A key result of our work is a set of analytic predictions for the structure factors in the large- and small-momentum limits. These results will be useful in current experiments aiming to develop a better understanding of the excitations and fluctuations of spinor condensates.
In this thesis, we study theoretically and in experimentally the properties of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates with antiferromagnetic interactions realized in the ultra-cold sodium gases confined in optical dipole traps. We present in detail how to realize, diagnose and control the spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in our experiment. In order to describe the condensate, a mean-field theory is first adopted. This theory predicts a phase transition when changing the magnetic field B. The predictions of the mean-field theory agree very well with most of our experimental results, including the values of the critical magnetic field Bc, asymptotic values of n0 (relative atom number in mF=0 state) at large B and the phase diagram of n0. However, for small magnetization and small magnetic fields, we find abnormally large fluctuations (super-Poissonian) of n0. In order to describe these large fluctuations, we develop a full quantum statistical description for the spinor condensate at finite temperature. To describe uncondensed thermal atoms (also present in the same trap), we use the ``semi-ideal" Hartree-Fock approximation to deal with the interactions between the condensate atoms and the thermal ones. The experimental results lead us to introduce two kinds of temperatures, the ``spin temperature" Ts and the ``kinetic temperature" Tk with Ts≪Tk, characterizing respectively the fluctuaitons of the condensate spin and the thermal gas. We conclude that the system is reaching a quasi-equilibrium states, where different degrees of freedom reach equilibrium by separate mechanisms but where the mutual thermalization does not occur over the lifetime of the cloud.
We develop theory for fluctuations in atom number and spin within finite-sized cells of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. This theory provides a model of measurements that can be performed in current experiments using finite resolution in situ imaging. We develop analytic results for quantum and thermodynamic limits of the fluctuations and apply our theory to the four equilibrium phases of a spin-1 condensate. We then validate these limits and examine the behavior over a wide parameter regime using numerical calculations specialized to the case of a spinor condensate confined to be quasi-two-dimensional.
In this thesis, we have investigated several fluctuation-driven phenomena in ultracold spinor Bose gases. In Bose-Einstein condensates of hyperfine spin-two (F=2) atoms, it is shown that zero-point quantum fluctuations completely lift the accidental continuous degeneracy in quantum spin nematic phases predicted by mean field analysis, and these fluctuations select out two distinct spin nematic states with higher symmetries. It is further shown that fluctuations can drive a novel type of coherent spin dynamics which is very sensitive to the variation of quantum fluctuations controlled by magnetic fields or potential depths in optical lattices. These results have indicated fundamental limitations of precision measurements based on mean field theories. In addition, fluctuation-driven coherent spin dynamics studied here is a promising tool to probe correlated fluctuations in many body systems. In another system -- a two-dimension superfluid of spin-one (F=1) Na²³ atoms -- we have investigated spin correlations associated with half quantum vortices. It is shown that when cold atoms become superfluid below a critical temperature a unique nonlocal topological order emerges simultaneously due to fluctuations in low dimensional systems. Our simulation have indicated that there exists a nonlocal softened pi-spin disclination structure associated with a half-quantum vortex although spin correlations are short ranged. We have also estimated fluctuation-dependent critical frequencies for half-quantum vortex nucleation in rotating optical traps. These results indicate that the strongly fluctuating ultracold spinor system is a promising candidate for studying topological orders that are the focus of many other fields.
Due to the coexistence of phase coherence and magnetic order, Bose-Einstein condensates with internal degrees of freedom, i.e., spinor BECs, are considered to serve as an ideal table-top playground for the studies of various phenomena in different fields of physics.They have been widely used in studying spin textures and topological defects, coherent spin dynamics, quantum symmetry breaking, quantum phase transitions, etc.However, the theoretical framework used in these works is based on the mean-field theory in which the effects of quantum fluctuations are ignored.Despite the success of the mean-field theory in the description of spinor BECs, there are particular features whose account must rely on a beyond-mean-field theory as the effects of quantum fluctuations become significant.In this thesis, we develop the Beliaev theory, which is a Green's function approach beyond the Bogoliubov theory, for spinor BECs to study the effects of quantum fluctuations on the condensates' phase structures, elementary excitations, stabilities, and phase transitions.First, we point out that the Bogoliubov theory fails to capture the metastable states associated with first-order quantum phase transitions in spin-2 BECs.In fact, we show that these metastable states are induced by quantum fluctuations, and only by going to the next-order approximation, i.e., the Beliaev theory, can we show that they indeed appear around the phase boundaries.Besides the fluctuation-induced metastability, we find another important class of first-order quantum phase transitions in both spin-1 and spin-2 BECs.In this class, there is no metastable state to all orders of approximation since it is prohibited by a high symmetry of the Hamiltonian at the phase boundary, resulting in a characteristic flat energy landscape.Despite being first-order phase transitions, the flat energy landscape leads to the criticality in the dynamics of the condensate through these transitions in a manner similar to second-order phase transitions.Second, we succeed in deriving the analytic expression for the energy gap of the so-called quasi-Nambu-Goldstone (quasi-NG) modes, which are excitations not generated by spontaneous symmetry breaking, in the nematic phase of spin-2 BECs.Although quasi-NG modes are gapless at the mean-field level, we prove that with quantum corrections they acquire a nonzero energy gap.From the obtained magnitude of the energy gap, we can evaluate the critical temperature above which a topological defect such as a vortex of spin nematicity would decay by emitting thermally excited quasi-NG modes.We also study how the propagation of quasi-NG modes in space is affected by the particle-number density fluctuations of the condensate.Third, we calculate the damping rates of various types of quasiparticles in a spin-2 BEC including phonons, magnons, and quasi-NG modes.They actually have finite lifetime and decay via numerous channels of collision with the condensate atoms.Using either the Fermi's golden rule or the spinor Beliaev theory, we obtain the analytic expressions for the damping rates of phonons and magnons, from which the power-law dependence of the damping rates on the momentum is deduced.In contrast, the damping of quasi-NG modes is suppressed due to the energy conservation.
The work of this thesis concerns the properties of a Bose gas of polarised dipoles that have long-range and anisotropic interactions. Our work is divided into two parts. First, the stability of a dipolar Bose gas at finite temperature (both above and below the critical Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) temperature Tc). Second, the fluctuations of a dipolar BEC at zero and small finite temperature (T ≪ Tc) in a regime where rotonic excitations emerge. \n \nPart I: Stability of a Trapped Finite Temperature Dipolar Bose Gas: Above Tc we implement a semiclassical Hartree-Fock theory and characterise the dependence of the stability boundary on temperature, trap geometry and the strength of the dipole-dipole interaction and contact interaction. We find that stability is greatly enhanced above Tc and that trap geometry continues to play a key role. Furthermore, we find that for oblate traps a novel double instability feature emerges. \nTo extend our stability analysis to the low temperature regime, T < Tc, we develop a beyond semiclassical Hartree theory. We use this to characterise the stability boundary as a function of geometry. Interestingly, we find large beyond semiclassical effects above Tc for prolate trapping geometries. We characterise thermal effects on biconcave condensate states. \n \nPart II: Rotons and Fluctuations in a Trapped Dipolar Condensate: To study density fluctuations we implement a numerical scheme to solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the Bogoliubov de Gennes equations. We find that the phonon and roton gases spatially separate and we characterise the role of the anomalous density on the density fluctuations of the thermally activated rotons. We develop a numerical scheme that calculates number fluctuations within cells of various shapes and sizes, and find a strong peak in the fluctuations when the cell size is around half the roton wavelength, which should be detectable by current experiments. By tailoring the cell shape we predict that experiments should be able to detect the effects of individual roton modes. \nFor the study of zero temperature fluctuations we deploy the Gross-Pitaevskii and Bogoliubov de Gennes equations to calculate the dynamic and static structure factors for a highly oblate BEC. We find a clear signature of the roton gas dispersion relation within the structure factors. This signature should be detectible in current experiments using Bragg spectroscopy.