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arXiv:cond-mat/0510324 · Physical Review A

Number-of-particle fluctuations and stability of Bose-Einstein-condensed systems

C.-H. Zhang

Published Feb 2, 2006• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this paper we show that a normal total number-of-particle fluctuation can be obtained consistently from the static thermodynamic relation and dynamic compressibility sum rule. In models using the broken U(1) gauge symmetry, in order to keep the consistency between statics and dynamics, it is important to identify the equilibrium state of the system with which the density response function is calculated, so that the condensate particle number ${N}_{0}$, the number of thermal depletion particles $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{N}$, and the number of noncondensate particles ${N}_{\mathrm{NC}}$ can be unambiguously defined. We also show that the chemical potential determined from the Hugenholtz-Pines theorem should be consistent with that determined from the equilibrium equation of state. The ${N}^{4∕3}$ anomalous fluctuation of the number of noncondensate particles is an intrinsic feature of the broken U(1) gauge symmetry. However, this anomalous fluctuation does not imply the instability of the system. Using the random phase approximation, which preserves the U(1) gauge symmetry, such an anomalous fluctuation of the number of noncondensate particles is completely absent.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.73.023601

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Abstract Particle fluctuations in systems, exhibiting Bose–Einstein condensation, are reviewed in order to clarify the basic points that attract high interest and often confront misunderstanding. It is explained that the so-called ‘grand canonical catastrophe’, claiming the occurrence of catastrophic particle fluctuations in the condensed phase, treated by grand canonical ensemble, does not exist. What exists is the incorrect use of the grand canonical ensemble, where gauge symmetry is not broken, while the correct description of the condensed phase necessarily requires gauge symmetry breaking. The ideal Bose gas has no catastrophic condensate fluctuations, and moreover there are no condensate fluctuations at all, as soon as gauge symmetry is broken. However it does have anomalous fluctuations of uncondensed particles, which implies its instability. For interacting particles, there are no condensate fluctuations, as soon as gauge symmetry is broken, and anomalous fluctuations of uncondensed particles, when correctly calculated, do not appear. Particle fluctuations in the systems of trapped atoms are discussed. Canonical ensemble and grand canonical ensemble with broken gauge symmetry are equivalent with respect to the number of particle scaling.
Various sum rules, accounting for the coupling between density and particle excitations and emphasizing in an explicit way the role of Bose–Einstein condensation, are discussed. Important consequences on the fluctuations of the particle operator as well as on the structure of elementary excitations are reviewed. These include a recent generalization of the Hohenberg–Mermin–Wagner theorem holding at zero temperature. Introduction The sum rule approach has been employed extensively in the literature in order to explore various dynamic features of quantum many body systems from a microscopic point of view (see [1] and references therein). An important merit of the method is its explicit emphasis on the role of conservation laws and of the symmetries of the problem. Furthermore, the explicit determination of sum rules is relatively easy and often requires only a limited knowledge of the system. Usually the sum rule approach is, however, employed without giving special emphasis to the possible occurrence of (spontaneously) broken symmetries. For example, the most famous f -sum rule [2] holding for a large class of systems is not affected by the existence of an order parameter in the system. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a different class of sum rules which are directly affected by the presence of a broken symmetry. These sum rules can be used to predict significant properties of the system which are the consequence of the existence of an order parameter.
We describe a number-conserving approach to the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensed dilute atomic gases. This builds upon the works of Gardiner [Phys. Rev. A 56, 1414 (1997)] and Castin and Dum [Phys. Rev. A 57, 3008 (1998)]. We consider what is effectively an expansion in powers of the ratio of noncondensate to condensate particle numbers, rather than inverse powers of the total number of particles. This requires the number of condensate particles to be a majority, but not necessarily almost equal to the total number of particles in the system. We argue that a second-order treatment of the relevant dynamical equations of motion is the minimum order necessary to provide consistent coupled condensate and noncondensate number dynamics for a finite total number of particles, and show that such a second-order treatment is provided by a suitably generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation, coupled to the Castin-Dum number-conserving formulation of the Bogoliubov--de Gennes equations. The necessary equations of motion can be generated from an approximate third-order Hamiltonian, which effectively reduces to second order in the steady state. Such a treatment as described here is suitable for dynamics occurring at finite temperature, where there is a significant noncondensate fraction from the outset, or dynamics leading to dynamical instabilities, where depletion of the condensate can also lead to a significant noncondensate fraction, even if the noncondensate fraction is initially negligible.
We derive exact thermodynamic identities relating the average number of condensed atoms and the root-mean-square fluctuations determined in different statistical ensembles for the weakly interacting Bose gas confined in a box. This is achieved by introducing the concept of auxiliary partition functions for model Hamiltonians that do conserve the total number of particles. Exploiting such thermodynamic identities, we provide the first, completely analytical prediction of the microcanonical particle number fluctuations in the weakly interacting Bose gas. Such fluctuations, as a function of the volume V of the box are found to behave normally, in contrast with the anomalous scaling behaviour V 4/3 of the fluctuations in the ideal Bose gas.
Major issues arising in the theory of Bose–Einstein condensation are reviewed. These issues, although being principally important, are very often misunderstood, which results in wrong conclusions. The basic point is global gauge symmetry breaking that is a necessary and sufficient condition for Bose–Einstein condensation. Paying no attention to this basic point is a common fallacy leading to a number of confusions. For instance, the attempt of describing Bose condensation without gauge symmetry breaking produces the so-called “grand canonical catastrophe” that actually does not exist in the correct description of Bose condensation accompanied by gauge symmetry breaking. The other common flaw is forgetting to consider the stability of the studied systems. One sometimes accomplishes lengthy calculations and discusses the properties of a system that in reality cannot exist being unstable. In some cases, the seeming instability is caused by the negligence of the simple mathematical reason teaching us that one should not go beyond the approximation applicability. An example of such an artificial instability is related to the appearance of the so-called “thermodynamically anomalous fluctuations” whose arising is due to the use of a second-order approximation for calculating fourth-order terms, in this way distorting the O(2)-class model of a Bose-condensed system to the Gaussian-class model. These and other principal points, important for the correct treatment of Bose-condensed systems, are reviewed, including the resolution of the Hohenberg–Martin dilemma of gapless versus conserving theories for Bose-condensed systems and the problem of statistical ensemble equivalence.
We study the ground state of a uniform Bose gas at zero temperature in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) approximation. We find a solution of the HFB equations which obeys the Hugenholtz-Pines theorem. This solution imposes a macroscopic squeezing to the condensed state and as a consequence displays large particle number fluctuations. Particle number conservation is restored by building the appropriate U(1) invariant ground state via the superposition of the squeezed states. The condensed particle number distribution of this new ground state is calculated as well as its fluctuations which present a normal behavior.