The phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute gases in traps is reviewed from a theoretical perspective. Mean-field theory provides a framework to understand the main features of the condensation and the role of interactions between particles. Various properties of these systems are discussed, including the density profiles and the energy of the ground-state configurations, the collective oscillations and the dynamics of the expansion, the condensate fraction and the thermodynamic functions. The thermodynamic limit exhibits a scaling behavior in the relevant length and energy scales. Despite the dilute nature of the gases, interactions profoundly modify the static as well as the dynamic properties of the system; the predictions of mean-field theory are in excellent agreement with available experimental results. Effects of superfluidity including the existence of quantized vortices and the reduction of the moment of inertia are discussed, as well as the consequences of coherence such as the Josephson effect and interference phenomena. The review also assesses the accuracy and limitations of the mean-field approach.
The phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute gases in traps is reviewed from a theoretical perspective. Mean-field theory provides a framework to understand the main features of the condensation and the role of interactions between particles. Various properties of these systems are discussed, including the density profiles and the energy of the ground-state configurations, the collective oscillations and the dynamics of the expansion, the condensate fraction and the thermodynamic functions. The thermodynamic limit exhibits a scaling behavior in the relevant length and energy scales. Despite the dilute nature of the gases, interactions profoundly modify the static as well as the dynamic properties of the system; the predictions of mean-field theory are in excellent agreement with available experimental results. Effects of superfluidity including the existence of quantized vortices and the reduction of the moment of inertia are discussed, as well as the consequences of coherence such as the Josephson effect and interference phenomena. The review also assesses the accuracy and limitations of the mean-field approach.
Quantum systems consisting of many particles are both interesting from the physics and the mathematics perspective. One aspect that makes them fascinating from the physics point of view is that they can exhibit quantum effects on macroscopic scales such as Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon, first predicted 100 years ago by Bose [19] and Einstein [44], occurs when a dilute gas of bosons is cooled down to very low temperatures. Below a certain critical temperature a condensate forms, meaning that a macroscopic fraction of the particles is in the same one-particle state, and thus, quantum phenomena become relevant on length scales much larger than the individual atom. The occurrence of Bose-Einstein condensation is also related to superfluidity as suggested in [88]. Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved experimentally independently by the groups of Cornell and Wieman [3] and Ketterle [40] earning them a Nobel prize in 2001. While Bose and Einstein analyzed theoretically the non-interacting gas, an effective theory describing weakly interacting Bose gases was proposed by Bogoliubov in 1947 with the goal of explaining the occurrence of superfluidity in liquid helium [18]. Using assumptions such as that condensation indeed occurs, his theory yields predictions for the low-energy states of the system. Seen from the mathematics perspective, describing the Bose gas is an interesting challenge due to the strong correlations between particles introduced by the interaction making this case much harder to study than the non-interacting one. In particular, a proof that Bose-Einstein condensation occurs in the thermodynamic limit for continuous systems is still out of reach. However, there has been a lot of work regarding the rigorous analysis of bosonic systems in various relevant regimes. This thesis contains three new contributions establishing rigorous results on bosonic systems in different, physically relevant settings. It is based on the articles [37, 27, 31]. The first result concerns the time-evolution of initially trapped Bose gases in the ultra-dilute Gross-Pitaevskii regime. Under some assumptions on the initial data satisfied in particular by a class of states that are expected to approximate the ground state in a trap, we derive a quasi-free approximation that is close to the true solution in L2-norm. In particular, we show that this approximate wave function is described in terms of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-particle state following the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation together with pair excitations with respect to this condensate. As a corollary, we establish a central limit theorem for bounded one-particle observables. The second result is a simple proof of Bose-Einstein condensation for interacting, ultra-dilute gases. More specifically, we consider scalings interpolating between the Gross-Pitaevskii regime and the thermodynamic limit. While condensation had been shown to hold in these regimes before, the advantage of the method used here is its simplicity. Lastly, the third result establishes an upper bound on the ground state energy of a dilute Bose gas in the thermodynamic limit. It captures rigorously the third order correction to the energy per unit volume for sufficiently low densities as predicted in the physics literature first by Wu and subsequently others. Full-text embargoed until: 2026-01-01
We review the theory of vortices in trapped dilute Bose-Einstein condensates and compare theoretical predictions with existing experiments. Mean-field theory based on the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation describes the main features of the vortex states, and its predictions agree well with available experimental results. We discuss various properties of a single vortex, including its structure, energy, dynamics, normal modes, and stability, as well as vortex arrays. When the nonuniform condensate contains a vortex, the excitation spectrum includes unstable (`anomalous') mode(s) with negative frequency. Trap rotation shifts the normal-mode frequencies and can stabilize the vortex. We consider the effect of thermal quasiparticles on vortex normal modes as well as possible mechanisms for vortex dissipation. Vortex states in mixtures and spinor condensates are also discussed.
The recent realization of Bose–Einstein condensation in atomic gases opens new possibilities for the observation of macroscopic quantum phenomena. There are two important features of these systems — weak interaction and significant spatial inhomogeneity. Because of this a non-trivial 'zeroth-order' theory exists, compared to the 'first-order' Bogolubov theory. The zeroth-order theory is based on the mean-field Gross–Pitaevskii equation for the condensate ψ-function. The equation is classical in its essence but contains the constant explicitly. Phenomena such as collective modes, interference, tunneling, Josephson-like current and quantized vortex lines can be described using this equation. Elementary excitations define the thermodynamic behavior of the system and result in a Landau-type damping of collective modes. Fluctuations of the phase of the condensate wave function restrict the monochromaticity of the Josephson current. Fluctuations of the numbers of quanta result in quantum collapse-revival of the collective oscillations.
Since the first experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensation in cold atomic gases in 1995 there has been a surge of activity in this field. Ingenious experiments have allowed us to probe matter close to zero temperature and reveal some of the fascinating effects quantum mechanics has bestowed on nature. It is a challenge for mathematical physicists to understand these various phenomena from first principles, that is, starting from the underlying many-body Schrödinger equation. Recent progress in this direction concerns mainly equilibrium properties of dilute, cold quantum gases. We shall explain some of the results in this article, and describe the mathematics involved in understanding these phenomena. Topics include the ground state energy and the free energy at positive temperature, the effect of interparticle interaction on the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation, as well as the occurrence of superfluidity and quantized vortices in rapidly rotating gases.
The recent realization of Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic gases opens new possibilities for observation of macroscopic quantum phenomena. There are two important features of the system - weak interaction and significant spatial inhomogeneity. Because of this inhomogeneity a non-trivial "zeroth-order" theory exists, compared to the "first-order" Bogolubov theory. This theory is based on the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the condensate ψ-function. The equation is classical in its essence but contains the ℏ constant explicitly. Phenomena such as collective modes, interference, tunneling, Josephson-like current and quantized vortex lines can be described using this equation. The study of deviations from the zeroth-order theory arising from zero-point and thermal fluctuations is also of great interest. Thermal fluctuations are described by elementary excitations which define the thermodynamic behaviour of the system and result in Landau-type damping of collective modes. Fluctuations of the phase of the condensate wave function restrict the monochromaticity of the Josephson current. Fluctuations of the numbers of quanta result in the quantum collapse-revival of the collective oscillations. This phenomenon is considered in some details. Collapse time for the JILA experimental conditions turns out to be of the order of seconds.
Trapped Bose-condensed atomic gases are remarkable because, in spite of the fact that these are very dilute systems, they exhibit robust coherent dynamic behaviour when perturbed. These quantum “wisps of matter” are a new phase of highly coherent matter. While binary collisions are very infrequent, the large coherent mean field associated with the Bose condensate ensures that interactions play a crucial role in determining the collective response of these trapped superfluid gases. In our discussion of the theory of collective oscillations of atomic condensates, the macroscopic Bose wavefunction Φ( r , t ) plays a central role. This wavefunction is the BEC order parameter. As discussed in Chapter 1, the initial attempts at defining this order parameter began with the pioneering work of London (1938a), were further developed by Bogoliubov (1947) and finally extended to deal with any Bose superfluid using the general quantum field theoretic formalism developed by Beliaev (1958a). Almost all this early theoretical work was limited to T = 0 where, in a dilute weakly interacting Bose gas, all the atoms are in the condensate. The first extension of these ideas to nonuniform Bose condensates was by Pitaevskii (1961) and, independently, by Gross (1961), which led to the now famous Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) equation of motion for Φ( r , t ). Before the discovery of BEC in trapped gases, the time-dependent GP equation was mainly used to study vortices in Bose superfluids, which involve a spatially nonuniform ground state. Apart from this application, the GP equation was largely unknown. The situation changed overnight in 1995 with the creation of trapped nonuniform Bose condensates in atomic gases.