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Condensates in periodic optical lattices

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Author(s):
Eduardo Toshio Domingues Matsushita
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Master's Dissertation
Press: São Paulo.
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física (IF/SBI)
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Emerson Jose Veloso de Passos; Tobias Frederico; Arnaldo Gammal
Advisor: Emerson Jose Veloso de Passos
Abstract

We use the Bose-Hubbard model to study the dynamical and thermodynamical stabilities of condensates in a circular periodic optical lattice. Our main goal was to investigate the existence of metastable condensates in the system. We derive and solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, and from the analysis of the solutions it was possible to show that the system condenses in states with well-defined modular momentum. These states constitute a basis that diagonalizes the term of the Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian which describes the dynamics of atomic tunneling. In the framework of Bogoliubov theory we determine, for each condensate, the effective Hamiltonian whose diagonalization give us the collective excitation spectrum of the system. We show that the mode associated to a zero eigenvalue, which is a consequence of the violation of atoms number conservation, has the same modular momentum of the condensate. The condensates with modular momentum in the 2nd and 3rd quadrants are all thermodynamically unstable whereas the dynamical stability depends on the control parameters. On the other hand, the condensates with modular momentum in the 1st and 4th quadrants are all dynamically stable whereas the thermodynamical stability depends on the control parameters. Our analysis shows that the condensate with modular momentum zero, which corresponds to a global minimum of energy, is always stable independently of the control parameters. We determine, exactly, the range on the control parameters where it is possible to detect metastability in the system. We have studied how the competition between the intensities of the tunneling and local interaction terms affects the stability of the condensates. This competition defines two distinct regimes: Rabi, where the coherence between states localized in the sites is achieved, and Fock, where this coherence is not achieved and the validity of Bogoliubov approximation is questionable. (AU)