Abstract Nonlinear feedback between the gauge field and the material field can yield novel quantum phenomena. Here, the interplay between a density-dependent artificial gauge field and Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) trapped in an optical lattice is studied. The energy spectrum and superfluidity represented by energetic and dynamical stabilities of the system are systematically discussed. A density-dependent artificial gauge field with a back-action between the BECs dynamics and the gauge field induces an effective atomic interaction that depends on the quasi-momentum and density of the condensates, resulting in a symmetry-broken energy spectrum and exotic stability phase diagram, that is, the system is only stable in a certain range of atoms density and under a limited lattice strength. The density-dependent artificial gauge field changes the sequence for the emergence of energetic and dynamical instability and the regimes of the energetic and dynamical instabilities are significantly separated, offering an efficient way to examine the energetic and dynamical instabilities of superfluids separately. In particular, the density-dependent artificial gauge field, as a mechanism for transferring momentum to the fluid, results in dynamic instability of the condensates even in free space. Our results provide deep insights into the dynamical response of superfluid systems to gauge fields and have potential applications for the coherent control of exotic superfluid states.
Abstract Nonlinear feedback between the gauge field and the material field can yield novel quantum phenomena. Here, the interplay between a density-dependent artificial gauge field and Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) trapped in an optical lattice is studied. The energy spectrum and superfluidity represented by energetic and dynamical stabilities of the system are systematically discussed. A density-dependent artificial gauge field with a back-action between the BECs dynamics and the gauge field induces an effective atomic interaction that depends on the quasi-momentum and density of the condensates, resulting in a symmetry-broken energy spectrum and exotic stability phase diagram, that is, the system is only stable in a certain range of atoms density and under a limited lattice strength. The density-dependent artificial gauge field changes the sequence for the emergence of energetic and dynamical instability and the regimes of the energetic and dynamical instabilities are significantly separated, offering an efficient way to examine the energetic and dynamical instabilities of superfluids separately. In particular, the density-dependent artificial gauge field, as a mechanism for transferring momentum to the fluid, results in dynamic instability of the condensates even in free space. Our results provide deep insights into the dynamical response of superfluid systems to gauge fields and have potential applications for the coherent control of exotic superfluid states.
We study the ground-state stability of the trapped one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate under a density-dependent gauge field by variational and numerical methods. The competition of density-dependent gauge field and mean-field atomic interaction induces the instability of the ground state, which results in irregular dynamics. The threshold of the gauge field for exciting the instability is obtained analytically and confirmed numerically. When the gauge field is less than the threshold, the system is stable, and the gauge field induces chiral dynamics of the wave packet. When the gauge field is greater than the threshold, the system is unstable, and the ground-state wave packet will be deformed and fragmented. Interestingly, we find that as the gauge field approaches the threshold, strong dipolar and breathing dynamics take place, and strong modes mixing occurs, the instability of the system sets in. In addition, we show that the stability of the system can be well controlled by periodical modulation of the trapping potential. We provide theoretical evidence to understand and control the irregular dynamics associated with chiral superfluid induced by density-dependent gauge field.
Abstract In this work we study the effect of density-dependent gauge field on the collective dynamics of a harmonically trapped Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC), beyond the linear response regime. The density-dependent gauge field, as a backaction of the condensate, can in turn affect the condensate dynamics, resulting in highly nonlinear equations of motion. The dipole and breathing oscillations of the condensate along the direction of gauge field are coupled by this field. We find that, in the presence of this coupling, the collective motion of a quasi-one-dimensional condensate is still regular, i.e., periodic or quasiperiodic. In contrast, for a quasi-two-dimensional condensate, the collective dynamics of the condensate can become chaotic, when the density-dependent gauge field is strong. The mechanism is that the gauge field can also induce a Hall effect, manifested as an additional coupling between dipole and breathing oscillations in perpendicular direction, and chaotic motion is resulted from the interplay between these oscillations. Our findings reveal an important effect of dynamical gauge field on the nonlinear dynamics of a BEC.
Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a new state of matter, experimentally realized in a dilute alkali gas of weakly interacting bosons. The gas is cooled to very low temperatures, of the order of nano-Kelvin, at which point a large fraction of the atoms occupy the lowest quantum state. Under such conditions, the quantum effects become apparent on a macroscopic scale. Many fundamental ideas
of quantum mechanics have been realized and proven to be true in experiments,
by studying the Bose-Einstein condensates. Amongst them, the observation of
macroscopic matter wave interference, the creation of vortices, dark and bright
solitons etc, find special mention. The dynamics of this system in presence of an
optical lattice reveals a superfluid to Mott insulator quantum phase transition.
This has opened a new avenue for research on BEC and its applications. From
a theoretical standpoint, the dynamics of BEC can be described by means of an
effective mean-field theory. This formalism is much simpler than the many-body
Schr¨odinger equation and based on a classical nonlinear evolution equation, known
as Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The nonlinear nature of the GPE leads to several interesting phenomena like soliton propagation, vortices, four wave mixing etc.,
which are closely related to nonlinear fiber optics.
The present thesis deals with nonlinear excitations and different phases of BEC
and is organized as follows: after a brief introduction, in chapter two, we start
with BEC in a one-dimensional shallow optical lattice, experiencing both cubic
and quintic nonlinearity. A superfluid density wave, of twice the periodicity of
lattice potential, is identified. This indicates matter redistribution, where atoms
from neighbouring sites have been depleted leading to a density wave behaviour.
Interestingly, it ceases to exist when only one of these interactions is operative.
We predict the loss of superfluidity through a classical dynamical phase transition,
where modulational instability leads to the loss of phase coherence. In presence
of pure two-body interaction, the superfluid density shows a periodicity commensurate
with the lattice potential. Apart from the superfluid state, a density wave
insulating phase is also found to exist, possessing two frequency modulations commensurate
with the lattice potential. A dynamical phase transition connects the
superfluid phase with an insulating phase, which in turn, is connected with the
density wave insulating phase. The solutions are found to be marginally stable, as
per the Vakhitov-Kolokolov (VK) criterion.
Chapter three describes the dynamics of the atomic-molecular Bose-Einstein
condensate (AMBEC) by mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE), taking into
account the atom-molecular interaction, as well as atom-molecule inter-conversion.
The two-body atom-atom, atom-molecule and molecule-molecule interactions are
analogous to the cubic nonlinearity of the standard GPE, whereas, the quadratic
nonlinear term arising from the inter-conversion between atoms and molecules is
identical to the scenario in strongly coupled BEC in one dimension. The presence
of both weak and strong interactions adds further richness to this system. We
find the molecular BEC possesses a complex dark (grey) soliton, while the atomic condensate is a bright one. The energy and momentum of this system is computed
in order to see the effect of the both weak and strong interactions on Lieb mode
profile and compare it with the pure atomic condensate profile. Another class
of solutions exist in this system, where both atomic and molecular condensates
possess bright solitons.
In chapter four, we investigate the effect of a harmonic trap on the dynamics
of grey solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates. It is observed that, these nonlinear
excitations of the cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate have strong coupling
with the trap at low momenta and hence can be effectively isolated from the
Bogoliubov sound modes, which respond weakly to harmonic confinement. This
strong coupling with the trap also makes the grey soliton amenable for control and
manipulation through trap modulation and temporal variation of the two-body interaction.
We have shown that in presence of an expulsive oscillator trap, the grey
soliton gets amplified, while having a compression in its width. Exact solutions are
also obtained in case of the two component Bose-Einstein condensates (TBECs),
where one component is a grey soliton and the other a bright one. The presence
of the trap and inter-species interaction significantly affects the grey soliton dynamics.
Similar to the single component, in the present case, we have shown that
both grey and bright soliton can be compressed simultaneously. A detailed study
of the energy and momentum of the soliton is reported, in order to find the effect
of the trap on the Lieb mode.
In chapter five, we study a BEC-defect complex in a quasi-one dimensional
scenario, where the defect atom moves in the condensate with constant velocity.
Explicit solutions of the coupled mean-field equations, describing defect-grey soliton
dynamics are obtained, demonstrating the coexistence of grey soliton and a
localized defect. Unlike the case of dark soliton, where the defect trapping center
has vanishing superfluid density, the moving grey soliton necessarily possesses a finite superfluid component at the defect location. The presence of the defect can
lower the grey soliton’s maximum velocity, as compared to the defect free case,
where the maximum velocity is the sound velocity. We have also carried out the
stability analysis of the obtained solutions using renormalized momentum formalism
and Vakhitov-Kolokolov criteria and find that the obtained solutions are stable
through both the methods. The grey soliton’s energy gets substantially modified
through its interaction with the defect, opening up the possibility of its control
through defect dynamics.
Chapter six describes a parametrically forced Bose-Einstein condensate in the
presence of a general moving optical lattice. The interaction between the atoms in
the condensate and the time dependent lattice potential leads to a novel propagating
superfluid matter wave, which can be controlled through chirp management.
This system, when placed in a trap, accelerates and undergoes rapid nonlinear
compression, controlled by the chirp. The density achieves its maximum, when
the matter wave changes direction. It is also shown that this system exhibits dynamical
superfluid insulator transition, where superfluidity breaks down and the
condensate transits to an insulating phase. The stability has been investigated
using Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion and found that it depends on the chirp, as well
as on the nature of the atom-atom interaction. The exact expression for energy
is obtained and analyzed in detail to gain physical understanding of the chirp
management of the sinusoidal excitations and also the dynamical phase transition.
A superfluid flow beyond a critical momentum in an optical lattice decays drastically by the interplay between nonlinearity due to the interparticle interactions in Bose-Einstein condensate and periodicity of the lattice; this instability is called dynamical instability. The complex density modulational profiles after the condensate becomes unstable observed experimentally is not completely understood, while the dynamical instability has been studied theoretically and experimentally. In this paper, we analyze the density modulation of condensates as a precursor of the dynamical instability in the two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model. Our analysis has clarified the unexplored properties of the density modulations associated with the dynamical instability at low filling and in a wide range of interactions, while the previous works have analyzed the density modulation on the basis of Gross-Pitaevskii equation under the specific condition that one-dimensional optical lattice is very shallow and the filling is very large. The numerical simulations based on the dynamical Gutzwiller approximation elucidate that the principal mode of density modulation highly depends on interaction strength U and the momentum acceleration rate. We briefly discuss these features with the stability phase diagram calculated on the basis of the Bogoliubov theory.
[[abstract]]We study the instabilities, Landau and dynamical instabilities, that are two mechanisms responsible for the breakdown of superfluidity in Bose-Einstein condensates interacting with a one-dimensional optical lattice. An effective-mass Gross-Pitaevskii equation was used to calculate the excitation spectrum and the condensate density of Bose-Einstein condensates in a weak periodic potential. After the condensate velocities greater than the speed of sound, we observe a decreasing of the condensate density, which is the onset of Landau instability. The condensate is dissipated, but not completely, from colliding with the thermal atom cloud. For even higher velocities of the condensate, we find a fast decreasing of the condensate density until full removal of the condensate. The regime of totally removing of the condensate is happened at the inverse effective mass of the condensate becoming zero or negative, where the condensate is on the dynamical instability.
We study the collective modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate subject to an optically induced density-dependent gauge potential. The corresponding interacting gauge theory lacks Galilean invariance, yielding an exotic superfluid state. The nonlinear dynamics in the presence of a current nonlinearity and an external harmonic trap are found to give rise to dynamics which violate Kohn's theorem; where the frequency of the dipole mode strongly depends on the strength of the mass current in the gas. The linearised spectrum reveals how the centre of mass and shape oscillations are coupled, whereas in the strongly nonlinear regime the dynamics are irregular.