There is a growing interest in the relation between Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) and the superfluidity. A Bose system confined in random media such as porous glass is suitable for studying this relation because BEC and superfluidity can be suppressed and controlled in such a disordered environment. However, it is not clear how this relation is affected by disorder and there are few theoretical studies that can be quantitatively tested by experiment. In this work we develop a dilute Bose gas model with a random potential that takes into account the pore-size dependence of porous glass. Then we compare our model with the measured low-temperature specific heat, condensate density, and superfluid density of ${}^{4}\mathrm{He}$ in Vycor glass. This comparison uses no free parameters. We predict phenomena at low temperatures: First, the random potential causes a T-linear specific heat instead of the ${T}^{3}$ dependence that is usually caused by phonons. Second, the BEC can remain even when the superfluidity disappears at low densities. Third, the system makes a reentrant transition at low densities; that is, the superfluid phase changes to the normal phase again as the temperature is reduced. This reentrant transition is more likely to be observed when the strength of the random potential is increased.
There is a growing interest in the relation between Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) and the superfluidity. A Bose system confined in random media such as porous glass is suitable for studying this relation because BEC and superfluidity can be suppressed and controlled in such a disordered environment. However, it is not clear how this relation is affected by disorder and there are few theoretical studies that can be quantitatively tested by experiment. In this work we develop a dilute Bose gas model with a random potential that takes into account the pore-size dependence of porous glass. Then we compare our model with the measured low-temperature specific heat, condensate density, and superfluid density of 4He in Vycor glass. This comparison uses no free parameters. We predict phenomena at low temperatures: First, the random potential causes a T-linear specific heat instead of the T3 dependence that is usually caused by phonons. Second, the BEC can remain even when the superfluidity disappears at low densities. Third, the system makes a reentrant transition at low densities; that is, the superfluid phase changes to the normal phase again as the temperature is reduced. This reentrant transition is more likely to be observed when the strength of the random potential is increased.
Superfluid 4He films adsorbed on porous Vycor glass have been studied in the low-density limit where the superfluid interparticle spacing is more than an order of magnitude greater than the atomic hard-core diameter. For the lowest transition temperatures observed, the influence of critical fluctuations near Tc is much reduced and a range of crossover to behavior more characteristic of the dilute Bose gas is observed.
We review generally accepted definitions of Bose–Einstein condensation and superfluidity, emphasizing that they are independent concepts. These ideas are illustrated in a dilute hard-sphere Bose gas, which is relevant to experiments on excitons and spin-aligned atomic hydrogen. We then discuss superfluid He in porous media, as simulated by different models in different regimes. At low coverage, we model it by a dilute hard-sphere Bose gas in random potentials, and show that superfluidity is destroyed through the pinning of the Bose condensate by the external potentials. At full coverage, we model the random medium by an ohmic network of random resistors, and argue that the superfluid transition is a percolation transition in d = 3, with critical exponent 1.7. This book is devoted to the phenomenon of Bose–Einstein condensation [1, 2] and inevitably, its relevance to superfluidity [3]. To provide some background for other articles in this volume, I would like to summarize some commonly accepted views on these phenomena, and illustrate them in the context of a dilute hard-sphere Bose gas, a model in which we have some control over the approximations made. I will also describe some recent work on the effect of randomness on the Bose condensate, which shows that Bose–Einstein condensation does not automatically give rise to superfluidity.
We evaluate the Bose-Einstein condensate density and the superfluid fraction of bosons in a periodic external potential using path-integral Monte Carlo methods. The periodic lattice consists of a cubic cell containing a potential well that is replicated along one dimension using periodic boundary conditions. The aim is to describe bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice or helium confined in a periodic porous medium. The one-body density matrix is evaluated and diagonalized numerically to obtain the single boson natural orbitals and the occupation of these orbitals. The condensate fraction is obtained as the fraction of bosons in the orbital that has the highest occupation. The superfluid density is obtained from the winding number. From the condensate orbital and superfluid fraction, we investigate (1) the impact of the periodic external potential on the spatial distribution of the condensate, and (2) the correlation of localizing the condensate into separated parts and the loss of superflow along the lattice. For high-density systems, as the well depth increases, the condensate becomes depleted in the wells and confined to the plateaus between successive wells, as in pores between necks in a porous medium. For low-density systems, as the well depth increases the BEC is localized at the center of the wells (tight binding) and depleted between the wells. In both cases, the localization of the condensate suppresses superflow leading to a superfluid-insulator crossover. The impact of the external potential on the temperature dependence of the superfluidity is also investigated. The external potential suppresses the superfluid fraction at all temperatures, with a superfluid fraction significantly less than one at low temperature. The addition of an external potential does not, however, significantly reduce the transition temperature.
We investigate the thermodynamic properties of a dilute Bose gas in a correlated random potential using exact path integral Monte Carlo methods. The study is carried out in continuous space and disorder is produced in the simulations by a three-dimensional (3D) speckle pattern with tunable intensity and correlation length. We calculate the shift of the superfluid transition temperature due to disorder and we highlight the role of quantum localization by comparing the critical chemical potential with the classical percolation threshold. The equation of state of the gas is determined in the regime of strong disorder, where superfluidity is suppressed and the normal phase exists down to very low temperatures. We find a T 2 dependence of the energy in agreement with the expected behavior in the Bose glass phase. We also discuss the major role played by the disorder correlation length and we make contact with a Hartree–Fock mean-field approach that holds if the correlation length is very large. The density profiles are analyzed as a function of temperature and interaction strength. Effects of localization and the depletion of the order parameter are emphasized in the comparison between local condensate and total density. At very low temperature, we find that the energy and the particle distribution of the gas are very well described by the T =0 Gross–Pitaevskii theory, even in the regime of very strong disorder.
The properties of systems with Bose-Einstein condensate in external time-independent random potentials are investigated in the frame of a self-consistent stochastic mean-field approximation. General considerations are presented, which are valid for finite temperatures, arbitrary strengths of the interaction potential, and for arbitrarily strong disorder potentials. The special case of a spatially uncorrelated random field is then treated in more detail. It is shown that the system consists of three components, condensed particles, uncondensed particles, and a glassy density fraction, but that the pure Bose glass phase with only a glassy density does not appear. The theory predicts a first-order phase transition for increasing disorder parameter, where the condensate fraction and the superfluid fraction simultaneously jump to zero. The influence of disorder on the ground-state energy, the stability conditions, the compressibility, the structure factor, and the sound velocity are analyzed. The uniform ideal condensed gas is shown to be always stochastically unstable, in the sense that an infinitesimally weak disorder destroys the Bose-Einstein condensate, returning the system to the normal state; but the uniform Bose-condensed system with finite repulsive interactions becomes stochastically stable and exists in a finite interval of the disorder parameter.
Weakly interacting Bose gases in a disorder environment have long been a challenging topic in the field of solid-state physics due to the intriguing interplay between superfluidity and localization. In this thesis we investigate theoretically the equilibrium properties of one- and three-dimensional harmonically trapped dirty Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). In particular we focus on the decomposition of the total particle density into three components, namely, the condensate density, the thermal density, and the density of fragmented local Bose-Einstein condensates within the respective minima of the random potential landscape. In order to determine the different density components we develop a Hartree-Fock mean-field theory for a weakly interacting trapped BEC in a random environment, then specialize it to contact interaction and delta-correlated disorder. This non-perturbative theory is worked out on the basis of the replica method, which represents a well- established tool to deal with disorder problems. With this we calculate the corresponding free energy at finite temperature and derive from it the underlying self-consistency equations for the respective density components. Then, as a first step, we investigate a quasi one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensed gas in a harmonic trapping potential with an additional delta- correlated disorder potential at zero temperature. To this end we solve the self-consistency equations within the Thomas-Fermi approximation and find the emergence of a Bose-glass region, where the condensate vanishes. We corroborate this analysis by an elaborate numerical treatment, where the corresponding one-dimensional time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii equation is numerically solved and disorder-ensemble averages of the condensate wave function are performed. The variance of the condensate wave function quantifies the number of bosons which condense in the local minima of the random potential. For weak disorder these mini-condensates turn out to occur preferentially at the border of the condensate, while for intermediate disorder strength this happens in the trap center. Additionally we use a variational ansatz in order to describe analytically the numerically observed redistribution of the fragmented mini-condensates with increasing disorder strength. In close analogy to the one-dimensional case we then treat the three-dimensional dirty Bose gas in an isotropic harmonic trap and a delta- correlated disorder potential at zero temperature using the corresponding self-consistency equations obtained via the Hartree-Fock mean-field theory within the Thomas-Fermi approximation. Additionally we use a variational ansatz, whose results turn out to coincide qualitatively with those obtained from the Thomas-Fermi approximation. Inparticular, a first order quantum phase transition from the superfluid phase, where the condensate density contributes to the total density, to the Bose-glass phase, where all particles are in the mini-condensates, is detected at a critical disorder strength, which agrees with findings in the literature. Furthermore, in a generaltriaxial harmonic trap, we investigate the geometric effect of different trap aspect ratios on the respective properties of the dirty BEC system. Finally, we consider the three- dimensional dirty BEC at finite temperature. This allows us to study the impact of both temperature and disorder fluctuations on the respective components of the density as well as their Thomas-Fermi radii. In particular, we find that the superfluid region, the Bose-glass region, and the thermal region coexist. Furthermore, depending on the system parameters, three phase transitions are detected, namely, one from the superfluid to the Bose-glass phase, one from the Boseglass to the thermal phase, and finally one directly from the superfluid to the thermal phase. All these results could be particularly useful for a quantitative analysis of world-wide on-going experiments with dirty bosons in quasi one-dimensional and three-dimensional harmonic traps.