Creation and counting of defects in a temperature-quenched Bose-Einstein condensate

Year: 2016

Authors: Donatello S., Serafini S., Bienaimé T, Dalfovo F., Lamporesi G., Ferrari G.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Trento, INO CNR BEC Ctr, I-38123 Povo, Italy; Univ Trento, Dipartimento Fis, I-38123 Povo, Italy; Ist Nazl Fis Nucl, Trento Inst Fundamental Phys & Applicat, I-38123 Povo, Italy.

Abstract: We study the spontaneous formation of defects in the order parameter of a trapped ultracold bosonic gas while crossing the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation at
different rates. The system has the shape of an elongated ellipsoid, whose transverse width can be varied. For slow enough temperature quenches we find a power-law scaling of the average defect number with the quench rate, as predicted by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. A breakdown of such a scaling is found for fast quenches, leading to a saturation of the average defect number. We suggest an explanation for this saturation in terms of the mutual interactions among defects.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A

Volume: 94 (2)      Pages from: 023628-1  to: 023628-8

More Information: We are grateful to N. P. Proukakis and I-Kang Liu for sharing preliminary results of their 3D SGPE simulations and for many discussions. We thank W. Zurek, A. del Campo, Z. Hadzibabic, G. Morigi, T. Calarco, M. Tylutki, and F. Larcher for insightful discussions. T.B. acknowledges the EU QUIC project for funding. This work was financially supported by Provincia Autonoma di Trento.
KeyWords: Kibble-Zurek; defects; quench
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.94.023628

Citations: 36
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