Semiclassical Corrections to a Static Bose-Einstein Condensate at Zero Temperature

In the mean-field approximation, a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate at zero temperature is described by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the condensate, or equivalently, by the hydrodynamic equations for the number density and the current density. These equations receive corrections from quantum field fluctuations around the mean field. We calculate the semiclassical corrections to these equations for a general time-independent state of the condensate, extending previous work to include vortex states as well as the ground state. In the Thomas-Fermi limit, the semiclassical corrections can be taken into account by adding a local correction term to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. At second order in the Thomas-Fermi expansion, the semiclassical corrections can be taken into account by adding local correction terms to the hydrodynamic equations

Dark soliton states of Bose-Einstein condensates in anisotropic traps

Dark soliton states of Bose-Einstein condensates in harmonic traps are studied both analytically and computationally by the direct solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in three dimensions. The ground and self-consistent excited states are found numerically by relaxation in imaginary time. The energy of a stationary soliton in a harmonic trap is shown to be independent of density and geometry for large numbers of atoms. Large amplitude field modulation at a frequency resonant with the energy of a dark soliton is found to give rise to a state with multiple vortices. The Bogoliubov excitation spectrum of the soliton state contains complex frequencies, which disappear for sufficiently small numbers of atoms or large transverse confinement. The relationship between these complex modes and the snake instability is investigated numerically by propagation in real time.Comment: 11 pages, 8 embedded figures (two in color

A particle-number-conserving Bogoliubov method which demonstrates the validity of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation for a highly condensed Bose gas

The Bogoliubov method for the excitation spectrum of a Bose-condensed gas is generalized to apply to a gas with an exact large number $N$ of particles. This generalization yields a description of the Schr\"odinger picture field operators as the product of an annihilation operator $A$ for the total number of particles and the sum of a ``condensate wavefunction'' $\xi(x)$ and a phonon field operator $\chi(x)$ in the form $\psi(x) \approx A\{\xi(x) + \chi(x)/\sqrt{N}\}$ when the field operator acts on the N particle subspace. It is then possible to expand the Hamiltonian in decreasing powers of $\sqrt{N}$, an thus obtain solutions for eigenvalues and eigenstates as an asymptotic expansion of the same kind. It is also possible to compute all matrix elements of field operators between states of different N.Comment: RevTeX, 11 page

Solitary-wave description of condensate micro-motion in a time-averaged orbiting potential trap

We present a detailed theoretical analysis of micro-motion in a time-averaged orbiting potential trap. Our treatment is based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, with the full time dependent behaviour of the trap systematically approximated to reduce the trapping potential to its dominant terms. We show that within some well specified approximations, the dynamic trap has solitary-wave solutions, and we identify a moving frame of reference which provides the most natural description of the system. In that frame eigenstates of the time-averaged orbiting potential trap can be found, all of which must be solitary-wave solutions with identical, circular centre of mass motion in the lab frame. The validity regime for our treatment is carefully defined, and is shown to be satisfied by existing experimental systems.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Bifurcations, order, and chaos in the Bose-Einstein condensation of dipolar gases

We apply a variational technique to solve the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation for Bose-Einstein condensates in which an additional dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms is present with the goal of modelling the dynamics of such condensates. We show that universal stability thresholds for the collapse of the condensates correspond to bifurcation points where always two stationary solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation disappear in a tangent bifurcation, one dynamically stable and the other unstable. We point out that the thresholds also correspond to "exceptional points," i.e. branching singularities of the Hamiltonian. We analyse the dynamics of excited condensate wave functions via Poincare surfaces of section for the condensate parameters and find both regular and chaotic motion, corresponding to (quasi-) periodically oscillating and irregularly fluctuating condensates, respectively. Stable islands are found to persist up to energies well above the saddle point of the mean-field energy, alongside with collapsing modes. The results are applicable when the shape of the condensate is axisymmetric.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, minor changes in the text and additional reference adde

The ground state of a Gross–Pitaevskii energy with general potential in the Thomas–Fermi limit

We study the ground state which minimizes a Gross–Pitaevskii energy with general non-radial trapping potential, under the unit mass constraint, in the Thomas–Fermi limit where a small parameter tends to 0. This ground state plays an important role in the mathematical treatment of recent experiments on the phenomenon of Bose–Einstein condensation, and in the study of various types of solutions of nonhomogeneous defocusing nonlinear Schrodinger equations. Many of these applications require delicate estimates for the behavior of the ground state near the boundary of the condensate, as the singular parameter tends to zero, in the vicinity of which the ground state has irregular behavior in the form of a steep corner layer. In particular, the role of this layer is important in order to detect the presence of vortices in the small density region of the condensate, understand the superfluid flow around an obstacle, and also has a leading order contribution in the energy. In contrast to previous approaches, we utilize a perturbation argument to go beyond the classical Thomas–Fermi approximation and accurately approximate the layer by the Hastings–McLeod solution of the Painleve–II equation. This settles an open problem, answered very recently only for the special case of the model harmonic potential. In fact, we even improve upon previous results that relied heavily on the radial symmetry of the potential trap. Moreover, we show that the ground state has the maximal regularity available, namely it remains uniformly bounded in the 1/2-Holder norm, which is the exact Holder regularity of the singular limit profile, as the singular parameter tends to zero. Our study is highly motivated by an interesting open problem posed recently by Aftalion, Jerrard, and Royo-Letelier, and an open question of Gallo and Pelinovsky, concerning the removal of the radial symmetry assumption from the potential trap

Bosons in anisotropic traps: ground state and vortices

We solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equations for a dilute atomic gas in a magnetic trap, modeled by an anisotropic harmonic potential. We evaluate the wave function and the energy of the Bose Einstein condensate as a function of the particle number, both for positive and negative scattering length. The results for the transverse and vertical size of the cloud of atoms, as well as for the kinetic and potential energy per particle, are compared with the predictions of approximated models. We also compare the aspect ratio of the velocity distribution with first experimental estimates available for $^{87}$Rb. Vortex states are considered and the critical angular velocity for production of vortices is calculated. We show that the presence of vortices significantly increases the stability of the condensate in the case of attractive interactions.Comment: 22 pages, REVTEX, 8 figures available upon request or at http://anubis.science.unitn.it/~dalfovo/papers/papers.htm

Ground state solution of Bose-Einstein condensate by directly minimizing the energy functional

In this paper, we propose a new numerical method to compute the ground state solution of trapped interacting Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at zero or very low temperature by directly minimizing the energy functional via finite element approximation. As preparatory steps we begin with the 3d Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE), scale it to get a three-parameter model and show how to reduce it to 2d and 1d GPEs. The ground state solution is formulated by minimizing the energy functional under a constraint, which is discretized by the finite element method. The finite element approximation for 1d, 2d with radial symmetry and 3d with spherical symmetry and cylindrical symmetry are presented in detail and approximate ground state solutions, which are used as initial guess in our practical numerical computation of the minimization problem, of the GPE in two extreme regimes: very weak interactions and strong repulsive interactions are provided. Numerical results in 1d, 2d with radial symmetry and 3d with spherical symmetry and cylindrical symmetry for atoms ranging up to millions in the condensation are reported to demonstrate the novel numerical method. Furthermore, comparisons between the ground state solutions and their Thomas-Fermi approximations are also reported. Extension of the numerical method to compute the excited states of GPE is also presented.Comment: 33 pages, 22 figure