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arXiv:cond-mat/0512175 · Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

Extended ensemble theory, spontaneous symmetry breaking, and phase transitions

Ming-wen Xiao

Published Sep 14, 2006• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this paper, as a personal review, we suppose a possible extension of Gibbs ensemble theory so that it can provide a reasonable description of phase transitions and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The extension is founded on three hypotheses, and can be regarded as a microscopic edition of the Landau phenomenological theory of phase transitions. Within its framework, the stable state of a system is determined by the evolution of order parameter with temperature according to such a principle that the entropy of the system will reach its minimum in this state. The evolution of order parameter can cause a change in representation of the system Hamiltonian; different phases will realize different representations, respectively; a phase transition amounts to a representation transformation. Physically, it turns out that phase transitions originate from the automatic interference among matter waves as the temperature is cooled down. Typical quantum many-body systems are studied with this extended ensemble theory. We regain the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer solution for the weak-coupling superconductivity, and prove that it is stable. We find that negative-temperature and laser phases arise from the same mechanism as phase transitions, and that they are unstable. For the ideal Bose gas, we demonstrate that it will produce Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in the thermodynamic limit, which confirms exactly Einstein's deep physical insight. In contrast, there is no BEC either within the phonon gas in a black body or within the ideal photon gas in a solid body. We prove that it is not admissible to quantize the Dirac field by using Bose–Einstein statistics. We show that a structural phase transition belongs physically to the BEC happening in configuration space, and that a double-well anharmonic system will undergo a structural phase transition at a finite temperature. For the O( N )-symmetric vector model, we demonstrate that it will yield spontaneous symmetry breaking and produce Goldstone bosons; and if it is coupled with a gauge field, the gauge field will obtain a mass (Higgs mechanism). Also, we show that an interacting Bose gas is stable only if the interaction is repulsive. For the weak interaction case, we find that the BEC is a 'λ-transition' and its transition temperature can be lowered by the repulsive interaction. In connection with liquid 4 He, it is found that the specific heat at constant pressure C P will show a T 3 law at low temperatures, which is in agreement with the experiment. If the system is further cooled down, the theory predicts that C P will vanish linearly as , which is anticipating experimental verifications.

DOI
10.1088/1742-5468/2006/09/p09007

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In this paper, as a personal review, we suppose a possible extension of Gibbs ensemble theory so that it can provide a reasonable description of phase transitions and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The extension is founded on three hypotheses, and can be regarded as a microscopic edition of the Landau phenomenological theory of phase transitions. Within its framework, the stable state of a system is determined by the evolution of order parameter with temperature according to such a principle that the entropy of the system will reach its minimum in this state. The evolution of order parameter can cause a change in representation of the system Hamiltonian; different phases will realize different representations, respectively; a phase transition amounts to a representation transformation. Physically, it turns out that phase transitions originate from the automatic interference among matter waves as the temperature is cooled down. Typical quantum many-body systems are studied with this extended ensemble theory. We regain the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer solution for the weak-coupling superconductivity, and prove that it is stable. We find that negative-temperature and laser phases arise from the same mechanism as phase transitions, and that they are unstable. For the ideal Bose gas, we demonstrate that it will produce Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in the thermodynamic limit, which confirms exactly Einstein's deep physical insight. In contrast, there is no BEC either within the phonon gas in a black body or within the ideal photon gas in a solid body. We prove that it is not admissible to quantize the Dirac field by using Bose–Einstein statistics. We show that a structural phase transition belongs physically to the BEC happening in configuration space, and that a double-well anharmonic system will undergo a structural phase transition at a finite temperature. For the O( N )-symmetric vector model, we demonstrate that it will yield spontaneous symmetry breaking and produce Goldstone bosons; and if it is coupled with a gauge field, the gauge field will obtain a mass (Higgs mechanism). Also, we show that an interacting Bose gas is stable only if the interaction is repulsive. For the weak interaction case, we find that the BEC is a 'λ-transition' and its transition temperature can be lowered by the repulsive interaction. In connection with liquid 4 He, it is found that the specific heat at constant pressure C P will show a T 3 law at low temperatures, which is in agreement with the experiment. If the system is further cooled down, the theory predicts that C P will vanish linearly as , which is anticipating experimental verifications.
Abstract We consider the homogeneous Bose gas in the three-dimensional unit torus, where N particles interact via a two-body potential of the form N−1v(x)N^{-1} v(x)N−1v(x) N - 1 v ( x ) . The system is studied at inverse temperatures of order N−2/3N^{-2/3}N−2/3 N - 2 / 3 , which corresponds to the temperature scale of the Bose–Einstein condensation phase transition. We show that spontaneous U (1) symmetry breaking occurs if and only if the system exhibits Bose–Einstein condensation in the sense that the one-particle density matrix of the Gibbs state has a macroscopic eigenvalue.
Phase transitions abound in the physical world, from the subatomic length scales of quark condensation to the decoupling forces in the early universe. In the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition, a gas of trapped bosonic atoms is cooled to a critical temperature. Below this temperature, a macroscopic number of atoms suddenly starts to occupy a single quantum state; these atoms comprise the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). The dynamics of the BEC phase transition are the focus of this dissertation and the experiments described here have provided new information on the details of BEC formation. New theoretical developments are proving to be valuable tools for describing BEC phase transition dynamics and interpreting new experimental results. With their amenability to optical manipulation and probing along with the advent of new microscopic theories, BECs provide an important new avenue for gaining insight into the universal dynamics of phase transitions in general.Spontaneous symmetry breaking in the system's order parameter may be one result of cooling through a phase transition. A potential consequence of this is the spontaneous formation of topological defects, which in a BEC appear as vortices. We experimentally observed and characterized the spontaneous formation of vortices during BEC growth. We attribute vortex creation to coherence length limitations during the initial stages of the phase transition. Parallel to these experimental observations, theory collaborators have used the Stochastic Gross-Pitaevski Equation formalism to simulate the growth of a condensate from a thermal cloud. The experimental and theoretical statistical results of the spontaneous formation of vortex cores during the growth of the condensate are in good quantitative agreement with one another, supporting our understanding of the dynamics of the phase transition. We believe that our results are also qualitatively consistent with the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, a universal model for topological defect formation.Ultimately, our understanding of the dynamics of the BEC phase transition may lead to a broader understanding of phase transitions in general, and provide new insight into the development of coherence in numerous systems.
The theory of non-interacting Bose gases is supplemented by a numerical quantum field description with a two-dimensional non-local order parameter that allows the modeling of wave-like atomic correlations and interference effects in the limit of low atomic densities. From the present model, it is possible to explain symmetry aspects of non-interacting and very weakly interacting Bose gases in the limit of fluctuating particle numbers, like the forward propagation of time and the relation to the breaking and preservation of phase gauge symmetry in solids. In the present formalism, the propagation of one-directional time arises from the pre-defined and equivalent convergence of independent quantum fields towards the Boltzmann equilibrium, and it is shown that Glauber coherent states are related to the definition of the quantized field. Coherently coupling condensate and non-condensate parts as a direct consequence of the increasing quantum coherence time between the different quantum field components in the Bose gas from cooling to below the critical temperature, the present model describes symmetry breaking, which is originally known from the definition of a specific gauge field from Elitzur's theorem for local gauge fields, as a global physical rather than a purely formal mathematical process.
The problem of understanding how a coherent, macroscopic Bose- Einstein condensate (BEC) emerges from the cooling of a thermal Bose gas has attracted significant theoretical and experimental interest over several decades. The pioneering achievement of BEC in weakly interacting dilute atomic gases in 1995 was followed by a number of experimental studies examining the growth of the BEC number, as well as the development of its coherence. More recently, there has been interest in connecting such experiments to universal aspects of nonequilibrium phase transitions, in terms of both static and dynamical critical exponents. Here, the spontaneous formation of topological structures such as vortices and solitons in quenched cold-atom experiments has enabled the verification of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicting the density of topological defects in continuous phase transitions, first proposed in the context of the evolution of the early universe. This chapter reviews progress in the understanding of BEC formation and discusses open questions and future research directions in the dynamics of phase transitions in quantum gases. Introduction The equilibrium phase diagram of the dilute Bose gas exhibits a continuous phase transition between condensed and noncondensed phases. The order parameter characteristic of the condensed phase vanishes above some critical temperature T c and grows continuously with decreasing temperature below this critical point. However, the dynamical process of condensate formation has proved to be a challenging phenomenon to address both theoretically and experimentally. This formation process is a crucial aspect of Bose systems and of direct relevance to all condensates discussed in this book, despite their evident system-specific properties. Important questions leading to intense discussions in the early literature include the time scale for condensate formation and the role of inhomogeneities and finite-size effects in “closed” systems. These issues are related to the concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking, its causes, and implications for physical systems (see, for example, Chapter 5 by Snoke and Daley). In this chapter, we give an overview of the dynamics of condensate formation and describe the present understanding provided by increasingly well-controlled cold-atom experiments and corresponding theoretical advances over the past twenty years. We focus on the growth of BECs in cooled Bose gases, which, from a theoretical standpoint, requires a suitable nonequilibrium formalism.
We investigate spontaneous U(1) symmetry breaking and the associated phase transitions in rotating interacting Bose gases. Using a theoretical framework that combines mean-field analysis with rotational dynamics, we analyze how rigid rotation modifies the condensate structure and critical behavior. The study identifies the emergence of Goldstone modes and clarifies their role in the low-energy excitation spectrum. The results provide insight into the interplay between symmetry, rotation, and many-body interactions, contributing to a deeper theoretical understanding of phase structures in Bose systems.We investigate spontaneous U(1) symmetry breaking and the associated phase transitions in rotating interacting Bose gases. Using a theoretical framework that combines mean-field analysis with rotational dynamics, we analyze how rigid rotation modifies the condensate structure, critical behavior, and low-energy excitation spectrum. We identify the emergence of Goldstone modes (massless rotons and massive phonons) in the symmetry-broken phase and clarify their role in mediating low-energy excitations—findings that remain robust at low momentum regardless of rotation. A key result is the angular velocity (Ω) dependence of the critical temperature (Tc) for U(1) phase transition, where Tc scales as Ω^(1/3), distinct from the Ω^(2/5) (nonrelativistic) and Ω^(1/4) (ultrarelativistic) scaling observed in noninteracting rotating Bose gases. Rotation also alters the temperature dependence of the thermodynamic potential minima, changing the characteristic factor from (1 - t) (t = T/Tc for nonrotating systems) to (1 - t³) for rotating gases. We further demonstrate that rotation preserves the second-order nature of the phase transition, while modifying the critical exponents and reducing the discontinuity in heat capacity with increasing Ω. Additionally, we define a σ meson dissociation temperature (Tdiss) characterized by mσ(Tdiss) = 2mπ(Tdiss), showing that Tdiss is always lower than Tc. Thermal mass corrections are shown to ensure the validity of Goldstone’s theorem in the rotating frame, even in the chiral limit. These results deepen our understanding of the interplay between symmetry, rotation, and many-body interactions, with implications for interpreting extreme conditions in heavy-ion collisions and compact astrophysical objects, while advancing the theoretical framework for phase structures in rotating Bose systems.
Bragg spectroscopy shows the evolution of gapless Goldstone modes and single-particle-like excitations in an atomic Fermi superfluid as it crosses from a Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer superfluid to the Bose–Einstein condensate regime. Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a central paradigm of elementary particle physics1, magnetism2, superfluidity3 and superconductivity4. According to Goldstone’s theorem, phase transitions that break continuous symmetries lead to the existence of gapless excitations in the long-wavelength limit5. These Goldstone modes can become the dominant low-energy excitation, showing that symmetry breaking has a profound impact on the physical properties of matter. Here, we present a comprehensive study of the elementary excitations in a homogeneous strongly interacting Fermi gas through the crossover from a Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of molecules using two-photon Bragg spectroscopy. The spectra exhibit a discrete Goldstone mode, associated with the broken-symmetry superfluid phase, as well as pair-breaking single-particle excitations. Our techniques yield a direct determination of the superfluid pairing gap and speed of sound in close agreement with strong-coupling theories.