Canonical vs. Grand Canonical Ensemble for Bosonic Gases under Harmonic Confinement

Year: 2024

Authors: Crisanti A., Salasnich L., Sarracino A., Zannetti M.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Roma La Sapienza, Dipartimento Fis, Piazzale A Moro 5, I-00185 Rome, Italy; Univ Padua, Dipartimento Fis & Astron Galileo Galilei, Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padua, Italy; Univ Padua, Padua QTech Ctr, Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padua, Italy; Ist Nazl Fis Nucleare, Sez Padova, Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padua, Italy; Ist Nazl Ott Consiglio Nazl Ric, Via Nello Carrara 2, I-50127 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Dipartimento Ingn, Via Roma 29, I-81031 Aversa, Italy; Univ Salerno, Dipartimento Fis Eduardo Caianiello, Via Giovanni Paolo 2132, I-84084 Salerno, Italy.

Abstract: We analyze the general relation between canonical and grand canonical ensembles in the thermodynamic limit. We begin our discussion by deriving, with an alternative approach, some standard results first obtained by Kac and coworkers in the late 1970s. Then, motivated by the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of trapped gases with a fixed number of atoms, which is well described by the canonical ensemble and by the recent groundbreaking experimental realization of BEC with photons in a dye-filled optical microcavity under genuine grand canonical conditions, we apply our formalism to a system of non-interacting Bose particles confined in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. We discuss in detail the mathematical origin of the inequivalence of ensembles observed in the condensed phase, giving place to the so-called grand canonical catastrophe of density fluctuations. We also provide explicit analytical expressions for the internal energy and specific heat and compare them with available experimental data. For these quantities, we show the equivalence of ensembles in the thermodynamic limit.

Journal/Review: ENTROPY

Volume: 26 (5)      Pages from: 367-1  to: 367-25

More Information: L.S. thanks Giacomo Gradenigo for useful discussions.
KeyWords: statistical ensemble; Bose-Einstein condensation; photons
DOI: 10.3390/e26050367

Connecting to view paper tab on IsiWeb: Click here