arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Gordon Baym.
We present a unified overview, from the mean-field to the unitarity regime, of the stability of a trapped Fermi gas with short range attractive interactions. Unlike in a system of bosons, a Fermi gas is always stable in these regimes, no matter how large the particle number. However, when the interparticle spacing becomes comparable to the range of the interatomic interactions, instability is not precluded.
We derive the scaling structure of the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii (KTB) transition temperature of a homogeneous Bose gas in two dimensions within diagrammatic perturbation theory. Approaching the system from above the transition, we calculate the critical temperature, $T_{KT}$, and show how the superfluid mass density emerges from Josephson's relation as an interplay between the condensate density in a finite size system, and the infrared structure of the single particle Green's function. We then discuss the trapped two-dimensional Bose gas, where the interaction changes the transition qualitatively from Bose-Einstein in an ideal gas to a KTB transition in the thermodynamic limit. We show that the transition temperature lies below the ideal Bose-Einstein transition temperature, and calculate the first correction in terms of the interparticle interactions. The jump of the total superfluid mass at the transition is suppressed in a trapped system.
This short encyclopedia article, reviewing current information on neutron stars, is intended for a broad scientific audience.
Studies of trapped quantum gases of bosons and of fermions have opened up a new range of many-body problems, having a strong overlap with nuclear and neutron star physics. Topics discussed here include: the Bose yrast problem -- how many-particle Bose systems carry extreme amounts of angular momentum; the infrared divergent structure of the transition to Bose condensation in a weakly interacting system; and the physics of extremely strongly interacting Bose and Fermi systems, in the scale-free regime where the two body s-wave scattering lengths are large compared with the interparticle spacing. Such a regime is realized experimentally through use of atomic Feshbach resonances. Finally we discuss creation of BCS-paired states in trapped Fermi gases.
We show that, within mean-field theory, the density profile of a rapidly rotating harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate is of the Thomas-Fermi form as long as the number of vortices is much larger than unity. Two forms of the condensate wave function are explored: i) the lowest Landau level (LLL) wave function with a regular lattice of vortices multiplied by a slowly varying envelope function, which gives rise to components in higher Landau levels; ii) the LLL wave function with a nonuniform vortex lattice. From variational calculations we find it most favorable energetically to retain the LLL form of the wave function but to allow the vortices to deviate slightly from a regular lattice. The predicted distortions of the lattice are small, but in accord with recent measurements at lower rates of rotation.
We study the effects of thermal fluctuations of gluons and the diquark pairing field on the superconducting-to-normal state phase transition in a three-flavor color superconductor, using the Ginzburg-Landau free energy. At high baryon densities, where the system is a type I superconductor, gluonic fluctuations, which dominate over diquark fluctuations, induce a cubic term in the Ginzburg-Landau free energy, as well as large corrections to quadratic and quartic terms of the order parameter. The cubic term leads to a relatively strong first order transition, in contrast with the very weak first order transitions in metallic type I superconductors. The strength of the first order transition decreases with increasing baryon density. In addition gluonic fluctuations lower the critical temperature of the first order transition. We derive explicit formulas for the critical temperature and the discontinuity of the order parameter at the critical point. The validity of the first order transition obtained in the one-loop approximation is also examined by estimating the size of the critical region.
How does a rapidly rotating condensed Bose gas carry extreme amounts of angular momentum? The energetically favored state of a not-too-rapidly rotating Bose condensed gas is, as observed, a triangular lattice of singly quantized vortices. This paper describes the fates of the vortex lattice in both harmonic and anharmonic traps when condensates are rotated extremely rapidly.
We consider the effects of superfluidity on the light scattering properties of a two component gas of fermionic atoms. It is demonstrated that the scattered intensity of the Stoke/anti Stokes lines exhibit a large maximum below the critical temperature when the gas is superfluid. This effect, which is the light scattering analogue of the famous Hebel-Slichter effect for conventional superconductors can be used to detect unambiguously the onset of superfluidity in an atomic gas in the BCS regime.
We examine the phase diagram of a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms, interacting with an attractive pseudopotential, in a quadratic-plus-quartic potential trap rotating at a given rate. Investigating the behavior of the gas as a function of interaction strength and rotational frequency of the trap, we find that the phase diagram has three distinct phases, one with vortex excitation, one with center of mass excitation, and an unstable phase in which the gas collapses.
After delineating the physical regimes which vortex lattices encounter in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates as the rotation rate, $Ω$, increases, we derive the normal modes of the vortex lattice in two dimensions at zero temperature. Taking into account effects of the finite compressibility, we find an inertial mode of frequency $\ge 2Ω$, and a primarily transverse Tkachenko mode, whose frequency goes from being linear in the wave vector in the slowly rotating regime, where $Ω$ is small compared with the lowest compressional mode frequency, to quadratic in the wave vector in the opposite limit. We calculate the correlation functions of vortex displacements and phase, density and superfluid velocities, and find that the zero-point excitations of the soft quadratic Tkachenko modes lead in a large system to a loss of long range phase correlations, growing logarithmically with distance, and hence lead to a fragmented state at zero temperature. The vortex positional ordering is preserved at zero temperature, but the thermally excited Tkachenko modes cause the relative positional fluctuations to grow logarithmically with separation at finite temperature. The superfluid density, defined in terms of the transverse velocity autocorrelation function, vanishes at all temperatures. Finally we construct the long wavelength single particle Green's function in the rotating system and calculate the condensate depletion as a function of temperature.
We develop an approach for calculating stationary states of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates in harmonic traps which is applicable for arbitrary ratios of the rotation frequency to the transverse frequency of the trap $ω_{\perp}$. Assuming the number of vortices to be large, we write the condensate wave function as the product of a function that describes the structure of individual vortices times an envelope function, varying slowly on the scale of the vortex spacing. By minimizing the energy, we derive Gross-Pitaevskii equations that determine the properties of individual vortices and the global structure of the cloud. For low rotation rates, the structure of a vortex is that of an isolated vortex in a uniform medium, while for rotation rates approaching the frequency of the trap (the mean field quantum Hall regime), the structure is that of the lowest p-wave state of a particle in a harmonic trap with frequency $ω_{\perp}$. The global structure of the cloud is determined by minimizing the energy with respect to variations of the envelope function; for conditions appropriate to most experimental investigations to date, we predict that the transverse density profile of the cloud will be of the Thomas-Fermi form, rather than the Gaussian structure predicted on the assumption that the wave function consists only of components in the lowest Landau level.
We calculate the in-plane modes of the vortex lattice in a rotating Bose condensate from the Thomas-Fermi to the mean-field quantum Hall regimes. The Tkachenko mode frequency goes from linear in the wavevector, $k$, for lattice rotational velocities, $Ω$, much smaller than the lowest sound wave frequency in a finite system, to quadratic in $k$ in the opposite limit. The system also supports an inertial mode of frequency $\ge 2Ω$. The calculated frequencies are in good agreement with recent observations of Tkachenko modes at JILA, and provide evidence for the decrease in the shear modulus of the vortex lattice at rapid rotation.
We show that, in the Thomas-Fermi regime, the cores of vortices in rotating dilute Bose-Einstein condensates adjust in radius as the rotation velocity, $Ω$, grows, thus precluding a phase transition associated with core overlap at high vortex density. In both a harmonic trap and a rotating hard-walled bucket, the core size approaches a limiting fraction of the intervortex spacing. At large rotation speeds, a system confined in a bucket develops, within Thomas-Fermi, a hole along the rotation axis, and eventually makes a transition to a giant vortex state with all the vorticity contained in the hole.
Rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates confined in anharmonic traps can exhibit a rich variety of vortex phases, including a vortex lattice, a vortex lattice with a hole, and a giant vortex. Using an augmented Thomas-Fermi variational approach to determine the ground state of the condensate in the rotating frame -- valid for sufficiently strongly interacting condensates -- we determine the transitions between these three phases for a quadratic-plus-quartic confining potential. Combining the present results with previous numerical simulations of small rotating condensates in such anharmonic potentials, we delineate the general structure of the zero temperature phase diagram.
We derive, through analysis of the structure of diagrammatic perturbation theory, the scaling behavior of the condensate and superfluid mass density of a dilute Bose gas just below the condensation transition. Sufficiently below the critical temperature, $T_c$, the system is governed by the mean field (Bogoliubov) description of the particle excitations. Close to $T_c$, however, mean field breaks down and the system undergoes a second order phase transition, rather than the first order transition predicted in Bogoliubov theory. Both condensation and superfluidity occur at the same critical temperature, $T_c$ and have similar scaling functions below $T_c$, but different finite size scaling at $T_c$ to leading order in the system size. Through a simple self-consistent two loop calculation we derive the critical exponent for the condensate fraction, $2β\simeq 0.66$.
We study, within Ginzburg-Landau theory, the responses of three-flavor superfluid quark-gluon plasmas to external magnetic fields and rotation, in both the color-flavor locked and isoscalar color-antitriplet diquark phases near the critical temperature. Fields are incorporated in the gradient energy arising from long wavelength distortions of the condensate, via covariant derivatives to satisfy local gauge symmetries associated with color and electric charge. Magnetic vortex formation, in response to external magnetic fields, is possible only in the isoscalar phase; in the color-flavor locked phase, external magnetic fields are incompletely screened by the Meissner effect. On the other hand, rotation of the superfluid produces vortices in the color-flavor locked phase; in the isoscalar phase, it produces a London gluon-photon mixed field. We estimate the coherence and Meissner lengths and critical magnetic fields for the two phases.
We derive sum rules for a uniform, isotropic superfluid quark-gluon plasma with massless quarks, first laying out the phenomenological equations obeyed by a color superconductor in terms of macroscopic observables such as the superfluid mass and baryon densities, and the electric and magnetic gluon masses, and then expressing these quantities in terms of equilibrium correlation functions. From the transverse part of the long wavelength baryon current-momentum correlation function we derive an exact expression for the superfluid baryon density, and from the longitudinal part, an f-sum rule. From the transverse part of the long wavelength color current-current correlation function we derive the superfluid Meissner mass, and from the longitudinal part, the Debye mass. These masses constrain integrals of the transverse and longitudinal parts of the gluon propagator over frequencies, and provide self-consistent conditions for a solution to the gap equation beyond weak coupling.
We study the effects of repulsive interactions on the critical density for the Bose-Einstein transition in a homogeneous dilute gas of bosons. First, we point out that the simple mean field approximation produces no change in the critical density, or critical temperature, and discuss the inadequacies of various contradictory results in the literature. Then, both within the frameworks of Ursell operators and of Green's functions, we derive self-consistent equations that include the dynamic correlations in the system and predict the change of the critical density. We argue that the dominant contribution to this change can be obtained within classical field theory and show that the lowest order correction introduced by interactions is linear in the scattering length, $a$, with a positive coefficient. Finally, we calculate this coefficient within various approximations, and compare with various recent numerical estimates.