Spinor Bose–Einstein condensates

An overview of the physics of spinor and dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) is given. Mean-field ground states, Bogoliubov spectra, and many-body ground and excited states of spinor BECs are discussed. Properties of spin-polarized dipolar BECs and those of spinor–dipolar BECs are reviewed. Some of the unique features of the vortices in spinor BECs such as fractional vortices and non-Abelian vortices are delineated. The symmetry of the order parameter is classified using group theory, and various topological excitations are investigated based on homotopy theory. Some of the more recent developments in a spinor BEC are discussed.     

Time-domain Ramsey interferometry with Bose–Einstein condensates

We report on the observation of time-domain interference with Bose–Einstein condensates, by means of a double separated oscillator technique. We discuss the decay of the Ramsey oscillations amplitude, that in our system occurs on a time scale of tens of microseconds. To elucidate the origin of this fast decay, we compare the behaviour of a condensate with that of a thermal cloud.     

Solitons in Bose–Einstein condensates

The Gross–Pitaevskii equation (GPE) describing the evolution of the Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) order parameter for weakly interacting bosons supports dark solitons for repulsive interactions and bright solitons for attractive interactions. After a brief introduction to BEC and a general review of GPE solitons, we present our results on solitons that arise in the BEC of hard-core bosons, which is a system with strongly repulsive interactions. For a given background density, this system is found to support both a dark soliton and an antidark soliton (i.e., a bright soliton on a pedestal) for the density profile. When the background has more (less) holes than particles, the dark (antidark) soliton solution dies down as its velocity approaches the sound velocity of the system, while the antidark (dark) soliton persists all the way up to the sound velocity. This persistence is in contrast to the behaviour of the GPE dark soliton, which dies down at the Bogoliubov sound velocity. The energy–momentum dispersion relation for the solitons is shown to be similar to the exact quantum low-lying excitation spectrum found by Lieb for bosons with a delta-function interaction.     

Instability domain of Bose–Einstein condensates with quantum fluctuations and three-body interactions

Through a Gross–Pitaevskii equation comprising cubic, quartic, residual, and quintic nonlinearities, we examine the modulational instability (MI) of Bose–Einstein condensates at higher densities in the presence of quantum fluctuations. We obtain an explicit time-dependent criteria for the MI and the instability domains of the condensates. Solitons are generated by suitably exciting the MI, and their stability is analyzed. We find that quantum fluctuations can completely change the instability of condensates by reversing the nature of the effective two-body interactions. The interplay between three-body interactions and quantum fluctuations is shown. Numerical simulations performed agree with analytical predictions.     

Dynamics of analytical three-dimensional matter-wave solutions in Bose–Einstein condensates with multi-body interactions

Using the F-expansion method we obtain a class of analytical matter-wave solutions to Bose–Einstein condensates with multi-body interactions through the three-dimensional quintic Gross–Pitaevskii equation. Our results demonstrate that the dynamics of matter-wave solutions can be controlled by selecting the potential, quintic nonlinearity, and gain coefficients. The obtained matter-wave solutions may be generated by tuning the cubic nonlinearity to zero via the Feschbach resonance technique and making the quintic nonlinearity increasing rapidly enough toward the periphery. The stability analysis of the obtained matter-wave solutions is investigated analytically and numerically.     

Phase fluctuations in Bose–Einstein condensates

We demonstrate the existence of phase fluctuations in elongated Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) and study the dependence of these fluctuations on the system parameters. A strong dependence on temperature, atom number, and trapping geometry is observed. Phase fluctuations directly affect the coherence properties of BECs. In particular, we observe instances where the phase-coherence length is significantly smaller than the condensate size. Our method of detecting phase fluctuations is based on their transformation into density modulations after ballistic expansion. An analytic theory describing this transformation is developed. Received: 13 July 2001 / Revised version: 28 September 2001 / Published online: 23 November 2001     

Spin–orbit coupled Bose–Einstein condensates with Rydberg-dressing interaction

Interaction between Rydberg atoms can be used to control the properties of interatomic interaction in ultracold gases by weakly dressing the atoms with a Rydberg state. Here we investigate the effect of the Rydberg-dressing interaction on the ground-state properties of a Bose–Einstein condensate imposed by Raman-induced spin–orbit coupling. We find that,in the case of SU(2)-invariant s-wave interactions, the gas is only in the plane-wave phase and the zero-momentum phase is absent. In particular, we also predict an unexpected magnetic stripe phase composed of two plane-wave components with unequal weight when s-wave interactions are non-symmetric, which originates from the Rydberg-dressing interaction.     

Bose–Einstein condensates in magnetic waveguides

In this article, we describe an experimental system for generating Bose–Einstein condensates and controlling the shape and motion of a condensate by using miniaturised magnetic potentials. In particular, we describe the magnetic trap setup, the vacuum system, the use of dispenser sources for loading a high number of atoms into the magneto-optical trap, the magnetic transfer of atoms into the microtrap, and the experimental cycle for generating Bose–Einstein condensates. We present first results on outcoupling of condensates into a magnetic waveguide and discuss influences of the trap surface on the ultra-cold ensembles. Received: 21 August 2002 / Revised version: 10 December 2002 / Published online: 26 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-7071/295-829, E-mail: fortagh@pit.uni-tuebingen.de     

Effective interactions between two impurities in quasi-two-dimensional dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates

We investigate the effective interaction between two heavy impurities immersed in a quasi-twodimensional dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate via a variation approach. We show that the mediated interaction is highly tunable via the contact and the dipole-dipole interactions between the background gas atoms. Interestingly, the mediated interaction potential may become an oscillating function of inter-impurity distance when roton excitation emerges under sufficiently strong dipolar interaction. Our system therefore provides an efficient way for tuning the mediated interaction between impurities.     

Beliaev theory of spinor Bose–Einstein condensates

By generalizing the Green’s function approach developed by Beliaev [S.T. Beliaev, Sov. Phys. JETP 7 (1958) 299; S.T. Beliaev, Sov. Phys. JETP 7 (1958) 289], we study effects of quantum fluctuations on the energy spectra of spin-1 spinor Bose–Einstein condensates, in particular, of a ⁸⁷Rb condensate in the presence of an external magnetic field. We find that due to quantum fluctuations, the effective mass of magnons, which characterizes the quadratic dispersion relation of spin-wave excitations, increases compared with its mean-field value. The enhancement factor turns out to be the same for two distinct quantum phases: the ferromagnetic and polar phases, and it is a function of only the gas parameter. The lifetime of magnons in a spin-1 ⁸⁷Rb spinor condensate is shown to be much longer than that of phonons due to the difference in their dispersion relations. We propose a scheme to measure the effective mass of magnons in a spinor Bose gas by utilizing the effect of magnons’ nonlinear dispersion relation on the time evolution of the distribution of transverse magnetization. This type of measurement can be applied, for example, to precision magnetometry.     

Generating periodic interference in Bose–Einstein condensates

The interference between two condensates with repulsive interaction is investigated numerically by solving the onedimensional time-dependent Gross–Pitaevskii equation.The periodic interference pattern forms in two condensates,which are prepared in a double-well potential consisting of two truncated harmonic wells centered at different positions.Dark solitons are observed when two condensates overlap.Due to the existence of atom–atom interactions,atoms are transferred among the ground state and the excited states,which coincides with the condensate energy change.     

Three-dimensional solitons in two-component Bose–Einstein condensates

We investigate a kind of solitons in the two-component Bose–Einstein condensates with axisymmetric configurations in the R2×S1space. The corresponding topological structure is referred to as Hopfion. The spin texture differs from the conventional three-dimensional(3D) skyrmion and knot, which is characterized by two homotopy invariants. The stability of the Hopfion is verified numerically by evolving the Gross–Pitaevskii equations in imaginary time.     

Non-autonomous matter-wave solitons in hybrid atomic–molecular Bose–Einstein condensates with tunable interactions and harmonic potential

In this paper, we investigate matter-wave solitons in hybrid atomic–molecular Bose–Einstein condensates with tunable interactions and external potentials. Three types of time-modulated harmonic potentials are considered and, for each of them, two groups of exact non-autonomous matter-wave soliton solutions of the coupled Gross–Pitaevskii equation are presented. Novel nonlinear structures of these non-autonomous matter-wave solitons are analyzed by displaying their density distributions. It is shown that the time-modulated nonlinearities and external potentials can support exact non-autonomous atomic–molecular matter-wave solitons.     

Kink-like breathers in Bose–Einstein condensates with helicoidal spin–orbit coupling

We report a kind of kink-like breathers in one-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) with helicoidal spin–orbit coupling (SOC), on whose two sides the background densities manifest obvious difference (called kink amplitude). The kink amplitude and shape of breather can be adjusted by the strength and period of helicoidal SOC, and its atomic number in two components exchanges periodically with time. The SOC has similar influence on the kink amplitude and the exchanged atomic number, especially when the background wave number is fixed. It indicates that the oscillating intensity of breather can be controlled by adjusting initial kink amplitude. Our work showcases the great potential of realizing novel types of breathers through SOC, and deepens our understanding on the formation mechanisms of breathers in BECs.     

Weakly interacting spinor Bose–Einstein condensates with three-dimensional spin–orbit coupling

Starting from the Hamiltonian of the second quantization form, the weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate with spin-orbit coupling of Weyl type is investigated. It is found that the SU(2) nonsymmetric term, i.e., the spin-dependent interaction, can lift the degeneracy of the ground states with respect to the z component of the total angular momentum J_z, casting the ground condensate state into a configuration of zero J_z. This ground state density profile can also be affirmed by minimizing the full Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional. The spin texture of the zero J_z state indicates that it is a knot structure, whose fundamental group is π₃(M)？？？040305？？？？π₃(S²)=Z.     

Towards surface quantum optics with Bose–Einstein condensates in evanescent waves

We present a surface trap which enables the study of coherent interactions between ultracold atoms and evanescent waves. The trap combines a magnetic Joffe trap with a repulsive evanescent dipole potential. Exploiting the advantages of both approaches this technique improves recent surfaces traps, which are based either on magnetic or optical traps alone. On the one hand, the position of the magnetic trap can be controlled with high precision which makes it possible to move ultracold atoms to the surface of a glass prism or to withdraw the atoms from the surface in a controlled way. On the other hand, the optical potential of the evanescent wave partially compensates for strong attractive surface forces and generates a potential barrier at only a few hundred nanometers from the surface. This barrier prevents the surface potentials from limiting the trap depth of the magnetic trap. The surface trap is probed with ⁸⁷Rb Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs), which are stably positioned at distances from the surfaces below one micrometer.     

Collective enhancement and suppression in Bose–Einstein condensates

The coherent and collective nature of a Bose–Einstein condensate can enhance or suppress physical processes. Bosonic stimulation enhances scattering in already occupied states which leads to matter wave amplification, and the suppression of dissipation leads to superfluidity. In this article we present several experiments where enhancement and suppression have been observed and discuss the common roots of and differences between these phenomena.