Quantum Phase of a Bose-Einstein Condensate with an Arbitrary Number of Atoms

Juha Javanainen; Sung Mi Yoo

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.161

Quantum Phase of a Bose-Einstein Condensate with an Arbitrary Number of Atoms

Juha Javanainen and Sung Mi Yoo

Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 161 – Published 8 January 1996

Abstract

We study the interference of two Bose-Einstein condensates within an elementary model. The detection of the atoms is modeled by adapting the standard theory of photon detection. Even though the condensates are taken to be in number states with no phases whatsoever, our stochastic simulations of atom detection produce interference patterns as would also be predicted on the basis of the phases of the macroscopic wave functions describing the condensates. In statistical mechanics terms, we have devised a method to analyze spontaneous symmetry breaking for an arbitrary (not necessarily larger) number of particles.

Received 18 August 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.161

Authors & Affiliations

Juha Javanainen¹ and Sung Mi Yoo²

¹Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3046
²Department of Physics, Kangwon National University, Chunchon, Kangwon-do 200-701, South Korea