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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

A general variational approach for equilibrium phase boundaries of trapped spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensates

Sahil Satapathy, Projjwal Kanti Kanjilal, A. Bhattacharyay

Published Jul 9, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We develop a simple and general variational method to estimate the solutions of the Gross–Pitaevskii equations and obtain the corresponding density profiles for all spin states of a trapped spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate. We further employ this approach to obtain the complete phase diagram of the system under quasi-one-dimensional harmonic confinement, with ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic spin interactions. We identify a suitable scaling that collapses all phase diagrams for different system sizes (i.e., total particle number) into a universal (system size-independent) phase diagram. The complete phase diagram for a confined system shows some significant qualitative differences compared to that of a condensate with homogeneous density distribution. The phase diagrams reported here could help identify the important parameter regimes in which phase transitions in the confined system, in general, occur. This knowledge of the region of phase boundaries can enable a reliable investigation of the instabilities near the boundaries that drive phase transitions.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/ae889a

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Abstract We develop a simple and general variational method to estimate the solutions of the Gross–Pitaevskii equations and obtain the corresponding density profiles for all spin states of a trapped spin-1 Bose–Einstein condensate. We further employ this approach to obtain the complete phase diagram of the system under quasi-one-dimensional harmonic confinement, with ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic spin interactions. We identify a suitable scaling that collapses all phase diagrams for different system sizes (i.e., total particle number) into a universal (system size-independent) phase diagram. The complete phase diagram for a confined system shows some significant qualitative differences compared to that of a condensate with homogeneous density distribution. The phase diagrams reported here could help identify the important parameter regimes in which phase transitions in the confined system, in general, occur. This knowledge of the region of phase boundaries can enable a reliable investigation of the instabilities near the boundaries that drive phase transitions.
We develop a simple and general variational method to estimate the solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equations and obtain the corresponding density profiles for all spin states of a trapped spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. We further employ this approach to obtain the complete phase diagram of the system under quasi-one-dimensional harmonic confinement, with ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic spin interactions. We identify a suitable scaling that collapses all phase diagrams for different system sizes (i.e., total particle number) into a universal (system size-independent) phase diagram. The complete phase diagram for a confined system shows some significant qualitative differences compared to that of a condensate with homogeneous density distribution. The phase diagrams reported here could help identify the important parameter regimes in which phase transitions in the confined system, in general, occur. This knowledge of the region of phase boundaries can enable a reliable investigation of the instabilities near the boundaries that drive phase transitions.
In the presence of a magnetic field, multicomponent ground states appear in trapped spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates for both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic types of spin-spin interaction. We aim to produce an accurate analytical description of the multicomponent states which is of fundamental importance. Despite being in the so-called regime of the Thomas-Fermi approximation (condensates with large particle number), the scenario of multicomponent states is problematic under this approximation due to the large variation in densities of the subcomponents. We generalize the variational method that we have introduced [P. K. Kanjilal and A. Bhattacharyay, Eur. Phys. J. Plus 137, 547 (2022)] to overcome the limitations of the Thomas-Fermi approximation. We demonstrate that the variational method is crucial in identifying multicomponent ground states. A comparison of the results of the variational method, which is multimodal by construction, with that of the single-mode approximation is also presented in this paper to demonstrate a marked improvement in accuracy over the single-mode approximation. We have also looked into the phase transition between phase-matched and polar states in a trapped condensate using the variational method and have identified substantial change in the phase boundary. The correspondence of the phase diagram of the trapped case with the homogeneous one identifies other limitations of the Thomas-Fermi approximation as opposed to the more accurate variational method.
Abstract Employing a general variational method and perturbation theory, we derived explicit solutions for the description of one-dimensional two species Bose–Einstein condensates confined by a harmonic trap potential in an optical lattice. We consider the system of two coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equations (GPE) and derive explicit expressions for the chemical potentials and wavefunctions in terms of the atom–atom interaction parameters and laser intensity. We have compared our results with the numerical solutions of the GPE and performed a quantitative analysis for the both considered methods. We underline the importance of the obtained explicit solutions to characterize the density profile or degree of miscibility of the two components.
We examine the phase diagram of an effectively repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms that rotates in a quadratic-plus-quartic potential. With use of a variational method we identify the three possible phases of the system as a function of the rotational frequency of the trap and of the coupling constant. The derived phase diagram is shown to be universal and partly exact in the limit of weak interactions and small anharmonicity. The variational results are found to be consistent with numerical solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
We study the collision dynamics of two Bose–Einstein condensates, with their dynamical wave functions modeled by a set of coupled, time-dependent Gross–Pitaevskii equations. In an effective one-dimensional system, we identify regimes characterized by the relationship between inter- and intra-atomic interactions and the initial configuration of the system, akin to the equilibrium phase diagram of two interacting Bose condensates. We consider a dynamical setup in which two wave packets are initially at rest, with a small separation about the center of an anisotropic harmonic trap. Upon release, we observe a rapid approach to dynamical equilibrium in the limits of very large and very small inter-particle repulsion, characterized by periodic transmission or reflection of the condensates as distinguishable units, whereas the intermediate, critical regime is characterized by extended transient dynamics, density fracturing, and dynamical mixing.
Spinor Bose-Einstein condensates under external magnetic fields exhibit well-characterized spin domains of its ground state due to spin-dependent interactions. At low temperatures, collision-induced spin-mixing instabilities may promote the condensate to dwell into metastable states occurring near the phase boundaries. In this paper, we study theoretically the metastable spin-phase diagram of a spin-1 antiferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate at zero and finite temperatures. The approach makes use of Hartree-Fock theory and exploits the symmetry of the Hamiltonian and of the order parameters yielding a closed system of transcendental equations for the free energy, fully avoiding the use of self-consistency methods. Our results are consistent with recent experiments and allow us to explain qualitatively the different types of observed quench dynamics. In addition, we found that similar phenomena should occur in antiferromagnetic spinor condensates with a sudden change in the temperature. It is shown also that the increase in temperature induces a traceable shift of the ferromagnetic-polar transition boundary, behavior previously not noted by self-consistent mean-field calculations.