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arXiv:cond-mat/0011165 · Optics Express

Multi-mode description of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

Krzysztof Goral, Mariusz Gajda, Kazimierz Rza̧żewski

Published Jan 15, 2001• 87 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the equilibrium dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a box. In our approach we use a semiclassical approximation similar to the description of a multi-mode laser. In dynamical equations derived from a full N-body quantum Hamiltonian we substitute all creation (and annihilation) operators (of a particle in a given box state) by appropriate c-number amplitudes. The set of nonlinear equations obtained in this way is solved numerically. We show that on the time scale of a few miliseconds the system exhibits relaxation -- reaches an equilibrium with populations of different eigenstates fluctuating around their mean values.

DOI
10.1364/oe.8.000092

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We study the equilibrium dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a box. In our approach we use a semiclassical approximation similar to the description of a multi-mode laser. In dynamical equations derived from a full N-body quantum Hamiltonian we substitute all creation (and annihilation) operators (of a particle in a given box state) by appropriate c-number amplitudes. The set of nonlinear equations obtained in this way is solved numerically. We show that on the time scale of a few miliseconds the system exhibits relaxation -- reaches an equilibrium with populations of different eigenstates fluctuating around their mean values.
We present an approach for the analysis of Bose-Einstein condensates in a few mode approximation. This method has already been used to successfully analyze the vibrational modes in various molecular systems and offers a perspective on the dynamics in many particle bosonic systems. We discuss a system consisting of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a triple well potential. Such systems correspond to classical Hamiltonian systems with three degrees of freedom. The semiclassical approach allows a simple visualization of the eigenstates of the quantum system referring to the underlying classical dynamics. From this classification we can read off the dynamical properties of the eigenstates such as particle exchange between the wells and entanglement without further calculations. In addition, this approach offers insights into the validity of the mean-field description of the many particle system by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, since we make use of exactly this correspondence in our semiclassical analysis. We choose a three mode system in order to visualize it easily and, moreover, to have a sufficiently interesting structure, although the method can also be extended to higher dimensional systems.
We discuss the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential subject to decoherence (or particle loss). Starting from the full many-body dynamics described by the master equation, an effective Gross-Pitaevskii-like equation is derived in the mean-field approximation. By numerically solving the GP equation, we find that macroscopic quantum self-trapping disappears for strong decoherence, while generalized self-trapping occurs under weak decoherence. The fixed points have been calculated, and we find that an abrupt change from elliptic to an attractor and a repeller occurs, reflecting the metastable behavior of the system around these points.
An atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is often described as a macroscopic object which can be approximated by a coherent state. This, on the surface, would appear to indicate that its behavior should be close to being classical. In this paper, we clarify the extent of how "classical" a BEC is by exploring the semiclassical equations for BECs under the mean field Gaussian approximation. Such equations describe the dynamics of a condensate in the classical limit in terms of the variables < x > and < p > as well as their respective variances. We compare the semiclassical solution with the full quantum solution based on the Gross-Pitaevskii Equation (GPE) and find that the interatomic interactions which generate nonlinearity make the system less "classical." On the other hand, many qualitative features are captured by the semiclassical equations, and the equations to be solved are far less computationally intensive than solving the GPE which make them ideal for providing quick diagnostics, and for obtaining new intuitive insight.
We study the complex quantum dynamics of a system of many interacting atoms in an elongated anharmonic trap. The system is initially in a Bose–Einstein condensed state, well described by Thomas–Fermi profile in the elongated direction and the ground state in the transverse directions. After a sudden quench to a coherent superposition of the ground and lowest energy transverse modes, quantum dynamics starts. We describe this process employing a three-mode many-body model. The experimental realization of this system displays decaying oscillations of the atomic density distribution. While a mean-field description predicts perpetual oscillations of the atomic density distribution, our quantum many-body model exhibits a decay of the oscillations for sufficiently strong atomic interactions. We associate this decay with the fragmentation of the condensate during the evolution. The decay and fragmentation are also linked with the approach of the many-body model to the chaotic regime. The approach to chaos lifts degeneracies and increases the complexity of the eigenstates, enabling the relaxation to equilibrium and the onset of thermalization. We verify that the damping time and quantum signatures of chaos show similar dependences on the interaction strength and on the number of atoms.
We study the detailed out-of-equilibrium time evolution of a homogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We consider a nonrelativistic quantum theory for a self-interacting complex scalar field, immersed in a thermal bath, as an effective microscopic model for the description of the BEC. The interaction between fluctuations proves to be crucial in the mechanism of instability generation. We show the existence of two regimes in k space, with a crossover for k(2)/2m approximately 2 lambda|phi(0)|(2), where lambda is the coupling constant and |phi(0)|(2) is the condensate density. We deduce and solve a set of coupled equations that completely determines the nonequilibrium dynamics of the condensate density.
The system under study consists of an interacting ultracold Bose gas confined by a finite n -well potential in one dimension ( n = 2, 3 and 4). By numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the effective Hamiltonian that describes the gas confined in each potential, we determine the mean population of particles in each well as a function of time. From this analysis, we obtain a continuous transition from a coherent state to a self-trapped state as a function of the parameter Λ ≈ Ng , which takes into account the number of particles N and the interaction strength g in each system. Three different behaviours as a function of Λ are found: a coherent oscillation regime, a partial-trapped state and a self-trapped state. The partial trapping regime appears to be a novel phase for finite potentials in one dimension. A systematic quantitative study allows us to conclude that the relaxation time observed in the coherent oscillation regime for a two-well potential scales as N 1/2 . Finally, a comparison with an experimental realization of a Bose–Einstein condensate in a two-well potential (Albiez et al 2005 Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 010402) is presented, exhibiting good agreement.