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arXiv:cond-mat/0612664 · Physical Review Letters

Vortex Quantum Creation and Winding Number Scaling in a Quenched Spinor Bose Gas

Michael Uhlmann, Ralf Schützhold, Uwe R. Fischer

Published Sep 18, 2007• 114 citations
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Abstract

Motivated by a recent experiment, we study nonequilibrium quantum phenomena taking place in the quench of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate through the zero-temperature phase transition separating the polar paramagnetic and planar ferromagnetic phases. We derive the typical spin domain structure (correlations of the effective magnetization) created by the quench arising due to spin-mode quantum fluctuations, and we establish a sample-size scaling law for the creation of spin vortices, which are topological defects in the transverse magnetization.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.99.120407

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Motivated by a recent experiment, we study nonequilibrium quantum phenomena taking place in the quench of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate through the zero-temperature phase transition separating the polar paramagnetic and planar ferromagnetic phases. We derive the typical spin domain structure (correlations of the effective magnetization) created by the quench arising due to spin-mode quantum fluctuations, and we establish a sample-size scaling law for the creation of spin vortices, which are topological defects in the transverse magnetization.
We study the dynamics of the quantum phase transition of a ferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) from the polar phase to the broken-axisymmetry phase by changing magnetic field, and find the spontaneous formation of spinor domain walls followed by the creation of polar-core spin vortices. We also find that the spin textures depend very sensitively on the initial noise distribution, and that an anisotropic and colored initial noise is needed to reproduce the Berkeley experiment [Sadler et al., Nature (London) 443, 312 (2006)]. The dynamics of vortex nucleation and the number of created vortices depend also on the manner in which the magnetic field is changed. We point out an analogy between the formation of spin vortices from domain walls in a spinor BEC and that of vortex-antivortex pairs from dark solitons in a scalar BEC.
It is shown that spin vortices are created through the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in the quantum phase transition of a spin-1 ferromagnetic Bose-Einstein condensate when the applied magnetic field is quenched to below a critical value. It is also shown that the spin correlation functions have finite correlation lengths, and that the magnetization at widely separated positions grows in random directions, resulting in spontaneous creation of spin vortices. We numerically confirm the scaling laws that the winding number of spin vortices is proportional to the square root of the length of a closed path and, for a slow quench, is proportional to ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\text{Q}}^{\ensuremath{-}1∕6}$ with ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\text{Q}}$ being the quench time. The relevance of spin conservation to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism is discussed.
We report the observation of spin domain walls bounded by half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate with antiferromagnetic interactions. A spinor condensate is initially prepared in the easy-plane polar phase, and then, suddenly quenched into the easy-axis polar phase. Domain walls are created via the spontaneous Z_{2} symmetry breaking in the phase transition and the walls dynamically split into composite defects due to snake instability. The end points of the defects are identified as HQVs for the polar order parameter and the mass supercurrent in their proximity is demonstrated using Bragg scattering. In a strong quench regime, we observe that singly charged quantum vortices are formed with the relaxation of free wall-vortex composite defects. Our results demonstrate a nucleation mechanism for composite defects via phase transition dynamics.
This thesis discusses non-equilibrium phenomena in antiferromagnetic spinor quantum gases. We investigate, both experimentally and theoretically, the quench dynamics of antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in the vicinity of a zero temperature quantum phase transition. A microwave dressing field was used as a novel tool to access the polar to antiferrmagnetic quantum phase transition at the quadratic Zeeman shift, q=0. By performing instantaneous quenches across the phase transition,a dynamical instability was induced in the atomic cloud. This lead to pair formation and rapid amplification of spin +/-1 atoms through spin-mixing collisions. The spatial ordering kinetics in the vicinity of the phase transition was quantified by performing the local spin measurement. The coarsening dynamics was observed for the instability for q < 0, as it nucleated small domains that grew to the axial size of the cloud. Rich nonequilibrium behavior was observed in the form of growth and decay of both nematic and magnetic spin waves, following the quench. The spatiotemporal evolution was characterized through two particle correlations between atoms in each pair of spin states, which revealed dramatic differences between the dynamics of the spin correlations and those of the spin populations. \nFinally, we demonstrate the remarkable influence of linear Zeeman term on non-equilibrium dynamics of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates. We show that contrary to prior understanding magnetic field gradient actually suppresses the tendency of spin 0 state to separate into spin +/-1 state. This reconciles the Bogoliubov discrepancies and leads to a dramatic sharpening of the transition point, resulting in a resolution at the 1 Hz level. Our results point to the use of dynamics, rather than equilibrium quantities for high precision measurements of phase transitions in quantum gases.
Recent experimental studies of 87^{87}87Rb spinor Bose Einstein condensates have shown the existence of a magnetic field driven quantum phase transition accompanied by structure formation on the ferromagnetic side of the transition. In this theoretical study we examine the dynamics of the unstable modes following the transition taking into account the effects of the trap, non-linearities, finite temperature and dipole-dipole interactions. Starting from an initial state which includes quantum fluctuations, we attempt to make quantitative comparisons with recent experimental data on this system and estimate the contribution of quantum zero-point fluctuations to the domain formation. Finally, using the strong anisotropy of the trap, we propose ways to observe directly the effects of dipole-dipole interactions on the spinor condensate dynamics.
We discuss the ordering of a spin-1 condensate when quenched from its paramagnetic phase to its ferromagnetic phase by reducing the magnetic field. We first elucidate the nature of the equilibrium quantum phase transition. Quenching rapidly through this transition reveals XY ordering either at a specific wave vector, or the "light-cone" correlations familiar from relativistic theories, depending on the end point of the quench. For a quench proceeding at a finite rate the ordering scale is governed by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. The creation of vortices through growth of the magnetization fluctuations is also discussed. The long-time dynamics again depends on the end point, conserving the order parameter in a zero field, but not at a finite field, with differing exponents for the coarsening of magnetic order. The results are discussed in the light of a recent experiment by Sadler et al.