arXiv subjects

L. P. Pitaevskii

Publications and source records attributed to L. P. Pitaevskii.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Thermal Lifshitz Force between Atom and Conductor with Small Density of Carriers

A new theory describing the interaction between atoms and a conductor with small densities of current carriers is presented. The theory takes into account the penetration of the static component of the thermally fluctuating field in the conductor and generalizes the Lifshitz theory in the presence of a spatial dispersion. The equation obtained for the force describes the continuous crossover between the Lifshitz results for dielectrics and metals.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Number fluctuations in cold quantum gases

In ultracold gases many experiments use atom imaging as a basic observable. The resulting image is averaged over a number of realizations and mostly only this average is used. Only recently the noise has been measured to extract physical information. In the present paper we investigate the quantum noise arising in these gases at zero temperature. We restrict ourselves to the homogeneous situation and study the fluctuations in particle number found within a given volume in the gas, and more specifically inside a sphere of radius $R$. We show that zero-temperature fluctuations are not extensive and the leading term scales with sphere radius $R$ as $R^2\ln R$ (or $\ln R$) in three- (or one-) dimensional systems. We calculate systematically the next term beyond this leading order. We consider first the generic case of a compressible superfluid. Then we investigate the whole Bose-Einstein-condensation (BEC)-BCS crossover crossover, and in particular the limiting cases of the weakly interacting Bose gas and of the free Fermi gas.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Equilibrium and dynamics of a trapped superfluid Fermi gas with unequal masses

Interacting Fermi gases with equal populations but unequal masses are investigated at zero temperature using local density approximation and the hydrodynamic theory of superfluids in the presence of harmonic trapping. We derive the conditions of energetic stability of the superfluid configuration with respect to phase separation and the frequencies of the collective oscillations in terms of the mass ratio and the trapping frequencies of the two components. We discuss the behavior of the gas after the trapping potential of a single component is switched off and show that, near a Feshbach resonance, the released component can still remain trapped due to many-body interaction effects. Explicit predictions are presented for a mixture of $^6$Li and $^{40}$K with resonant interaction.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2007

Measurement of the Temperature Dependence of the Casimir-Polder Force

We report on the first measurement of a temperature dependence of the Casimir-Polder force. This measurement was obtained by positioning a nearly pure 87-Rb Bose-Einstein condensate a few microns from a dielectric substrate and exciting its dipole oscillation. Changes in the collective oscillation frequency of the magnetically trapped atoms result from spatial variations in the surface-atom force. In our experiment, the dielectric substrate is heated up to 605 K, while the surrounding environment is kept near room temperature (310 K). The effect of the Casimir-Polder force is measured to be nearly 3 times larger for a 605 K substrate than for a room-temperature substrate, showing a clear temperature dependence in agreement with theory.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2006

Dark solitons as quasiparticles in trapped condensates

We present a theory of dark soliton dynamics in trapped quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates, which is based on the local density approximation. The approach is applicable for arbitrary polynomial nonlinearities of the mean-field equation governing the system as well as to arbitrary polynomial traps. In particular, we derive a general formula for the frequency of the soliton oscillations in confining potentials. A special attention is dedicated to the study of the soliton dynamics in adiabatically varying traps. It is shown that the dependence of the amplitude of oscillations {\it vs} the trap frequency (strength) is given by the scaling law $X_0\proptoω^{-γ}$ where the exponent $γ$ depends on the type of the two-body interactions, on the exponent of the polynomial confining potential, on the density of the condensate and on the initial soliton velocity. Analytical results obtained within the framework of the local density approximation are compared with the direct numerical simulations of the dynamics, showing remarkable match. Various limiting cases are addressed. In particular for the slow solitons we computed a general formula for the effective mass and for the frequency of oscillations.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2005

Kinetic energy of uniform Bose-Einstein condensate

The Bogoliubov theory of a uniform weakly-nonideal Bose-Einstein condensate leads to a divergent expression for the kinetic energy of atoms. However, the latter can be determined provided that the dependence of the scattering length on atomic mass is known. The explicit expressions are derived for the kinetic energy through parameters that specify interatomic interaction. The kinetic energy of condensate atoms noticeably exceeds the total energy. Numerical data are presented for Rb-87 and Na-23 condensates.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Why and when the Minkowski's stress tensor can be used in the problem of Casimir force acting on bodies embedded in media

It is shown that the criticism by Raabe and Welsch of the Dzyaloshinskii-Lifshitz-Pitaevskii theory of the van der Waals-Casimir forces inside a medium is based on misunderstandings. It is explained why and at which conditions one can use the ''Minkowski-like '' stress tensor for calculations of the forces. The reason, why approach of Raabe and Welsch is incorrect, is discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Sound propagation and oscillations of a superfluid Fermi gas in the presence of a 1D optical lattice

We develop the hydrodynamic theory of Fermi superfluids in the presence of a periodic potential. The relevant parameters governing the propagation of sound (compressibility and effective mass) are calculated in the weakly interacting BCS limit. The conditions of stability of the superfluid motion with respect to creation of elementary excitations are discussed. We also evaluate the frequency of the center of mass oscillation when the superfluid gas is additionally confined by a harmonic trap.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2005

Formation of molecules near a Feshbach resonance in a 1D optical lattice

We calculate the binding energy of two atoms interacting near a Feshbach resonance in the presence of a 1D periodic potential. The critical value of the scattering length needed to produce a molecule as well as the value of the molecular binding energy in the unitarity limit of infinite scattering length are calculated as a function of the intensity of the laser field generating the periodic potential. The Bloch bandwidth and the effective mass of molecules are shown to depend strongly on the value of the scattering length due to the correlated motion of the two atoms.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2004

Density pattern in supercritical flow of liquid He-4

A density functional theory is used to investigate the instability arising in superfluid $^4$He as it flows at velocity u just above the Landau critical velocity of rotons v_c. Confirming an early theoretical prediction by one of us [JETP Lett. 39, 511 (1984)], we find that a stationary periodic modulation of the density occurs, with amplitude proportional to (u-v_c)^{1/2} and wave vector equal to the roton wave vector. This density pattern is studied for supercritical flow both in bulk helium and in a channel of nanometer cross-section.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2004

Motion of a heavy impurity through a Bose-Einstein condensate

We study motion of a point-like impurity in a Bose-Einstein condensate at T=0. By solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a perturbative manner we calculate the induced mass of the impurity and the drag force on the impurity in 3D, 2D and 1D cases. The relationship between the induced mass and the normal mass of fluid is found and coincides with the result of the Bogoliubov theory. The drag force appears for supersonic motion of the impurity. In 1D the drag force is investigated also on the basis of the exact Lieb-Liniger theory, using the dynamic form factor, which has been evaluated by the Haldane method of the calculation of correlation functions. In this theory the force appears for an arbitrarily small velocity of the impurity. The possibility of measuring the form factor in existing experiments is noted.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2004

Umklapp collisions and center of mass oscillation of a trapped Fermi gas

Starting from the the Boltzmann equation, we study the center of mass oscillation of a harmonically trapped normal Fermi gas in the presence of a one-dimensional periodic potential. We show that for values of the the Fermi energy above the first Bloch band the center of mass motion is strongly damped in the collisional regime due to umklapp processes. This should be contrasted with the behaviour of a superfluid where one instead expects the occurrence of persistent Josephson-like oscillations.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2004

Tkachenko oscillations and the compressibility of a rotating Bose gas

The elastic oscillations of the vortex lattice of a cold Bose gas (Tkachenko modes) are shown to play a crucial role in the saturation of the compressibility sum rule, as a consequence of the hybridization with the longitudinal degrees of freedom. The presence of the vortex lattice is responsible for a $q^2$ behavior of the static structure factor at small wavevectors $q$, which implies the absence of long range order in 2D configurations at zero temperature. Sum rules are used to calculate the Tkachenko frequency in the presence of harmonic trapping. Results are derived in the Thomas-Fermi regime and compared with experiments as well as with previous theoretical estimates.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2003

Interacting fermions in quasi-one-dimensional harmonic traps

Quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1d) two-component Fermi gases with effectively attractive and repulsive interactions are characterized for arbitrary interaction strength. The ground-state properties of the gas confined in highly elongated harmonic traps are determined within the local density approximation. For strong attractive effective interactions the existence of a molecular Tonks-Girardeau gas is predicted. The frequency of the lowest breathing mode is calculated as a function of the coupling strength for both attractive and repulsive interactions.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2003

Momentum distribution of a trapped Fermi gas with large scattering length

Using a scattering length parametrization of the BCS-BEC crossover as well as the local density approximation for the density profile, we calculate the momentum distribution of a harmonically trapped atomic Fermi gas at zero temperature. Various interaction regimes are considered, including the BCS phase, the unitarity limit and the molecular regime. We show that the relevant parameter which characterizes the crossover is given by the dimensionless combination $N^{1/6}a/a_{ho}$, where $N$ is the number of atoms, $a$ is the scattering length and $a_{ho}$ is the oscillator length. The width of the momentum distribution is shown to depend in a crucial way on the value and sign of this parameter. Our predictions can be relevant for experiments on ultracold atomic Fermi gases near a Feshbach resonance.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2002

Landau damping of transverse quadrupole oscillations of an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the interaction between low-lying transverse collective oscillations and thermal excitations of an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate by means of perturbation theory. We consider a cylindrically trapped condensate and calculate the transverse elementary excitations at zero temperature by solving the linearized Gross-Pitaevskii equations in two dimensions. We use them to calculate the matrix elements between thermal excited states coupled with the quasi-2D collective modes. The Landau damping of transverse collective modes is investigated as a function of temperature. At low temperatures, the damping rate due to the Landau decay mechanism is in agreement with the experimental data for the decay of the transverse quadrupole mode, but it is too small to explain the slow experimental decay of the transverse breathing mode. The reason for this discrepancy is discussed.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

Adiabatic compression of a trapped Fermi gas

We propose a method to reach conditions of high degeneracy in a trapped Fermi gas, based on the adiabatic transfer of atoms from a magnetic to a tighter optical trap. The transformation yields a large increase of the Fermi energy, without a significant change of the temperature. The large enhancement of the central density emphasizes the role of the interactions and makes the system much closer to the BCS transition. An estimate of the time needed to achieve the conditions of adiabaticity is also given.

cond-mat↗

arXiv2000

On the criterion for Bose-Einstein condensation for particles in traps

We consider the criterion for Bose condensation for particles in a harmonic trap. For a fixed angular momentum, the lowest energy state for a cloud of bosons with attractive interactions is the ground state of the cloud with all the angular momentum in the center-of-mass motion, and the one-particle reduced density matrix generally does not have a single large eigenvalue, but a number of them, suggesting that the state is an example of a fragmented condensate (Wilkin, Gunn, and Smith, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 2265 (1998)). We show that a convenient way to describe correlations in the system is by defining an internal one-particle reduced density matrix, in which the center-of-mass motion is eliminated, and that this has a single eigenvalue equal to the number of particles for the problem considered here. Our considerations indicate that care is necessary in formulating a criterion for Bose-Einstein condensation.

cond-mat↗