Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Vol. 135, Nos. 3/4, May 2004 (© 2004) The Schrödinger Cat Family in Attractive Bose Gases T.-L. Ho and C. V. Ciobanu (1) Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 E-mail: ciobanu@engin.brown.edu (Received December 18, 2003; revised January 21, 2004) We show that the ground state of an attractive Bose gas in a double well evolves from a coherent state to a Schrödinger Cat like state as the tunneling barrier is decreased. The latter exhibits super-fragmentation similar to the ground state of a spin-1 Bose gas with antiferromagnetic interactions. We also show that the fragmented condensates of attractive and repulsive Bose gases in double wells lead to very different interference patterns. FOR KEY WORDS : L; L. G N I AD 1. INTRODUCTION E R F O Since the discovery of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in atomic gases, there have been many studies of the phase coherence properties of Bose systems. A frequently studied example is a repulsive Bose gas in a double well, where the ground state changes from a coherent state to a Fock state (or number state) as the tunnelling is decreased. 1–4 In a coherent state, the condensates in the two wells are phase-coherent, whereas they are incoherent in a Fock state. A number of authors 3, 5, 6 have shown that despite their differences, coherent states and Fock states cannot be distinguished by interference experiments which measure the density profile of two overlapping condensates that are initially separated. The reason turns out to be a subtle one: the projective nature of the measurement process introduces coherence into a Fock state, so much that it gives rise to the same interference pattern as the coherent state. In contrast, there are few studies of the phase coherence of Bose gases with attractive interactions. Such studies are not only important for conceptual reasons, but also relevant for current experiments. 7 PRO 1 LY N O Corresponding author, currently in the Division of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912. 257 0022-2291/04/0500-0257/0 © 2004 Plenum Publishing Corporation File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 1/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 258 T.-L. Ho and C. V. Ciobanu We will show that both repulsive and attractive interactions lead to ‘‘fragmented’’ condensates, characterized by more than one macroscopic eigenvalue in the single-particle density matrix. However, the ground state of an attractive Bose gas in double wells is in general Schrödinger Cat-like and is ‘‘superfragmented.’’ 8 The latter means that the internal number fluctuation DN 2 is enormous, i.e., of order N 2. In contrast, DN 2 ’ 0 for the Fock state (which is fragmented), and DN 2 ’ N for coherent states. Because of the huge number fluctuations, the measurement process is unable to project the system into a single coherent state as in the case of Bose condensates with repulsive interactions; instead, the system is projected in a statistical mixture of Fock-like states with unequal number of particles in each well. Consequently, the interference pattern of attractive and repulsive Bose gases in double wells are very different in the fragmented regime. Before proceeding, we shall comment on two recent related developments. There have been increasing efforts in recent years to create a Schrödinger cat state in condensed matter and atomic systems. The Schrödinger Cat state (or ‘‘Cat state’’ for short) is a superposition of two macroscopic quantum states. It is often used to illustrate the peculiarity of Quantum Theory, which admits such superpositions even though they have never been observed on the macroscopic scale. The usual explanation is that Cat states are highly unstable against entanglement with environment. 9 Despite such difficulties, Cat states have recently been created on the mesoscopic scale. 10 Since the discovery of BEC, there have been suggestions to produce ‘‘bigger’’ Cat states using atomic Bose condensates. These include using binary mixtures of Bose condensates, 11 splitting the microtrap that contains the condensate, 12 as well as performing projections on the coherent states. 13 The attractive Bose gas in a double well is mathematically similar to the binary mixtures of Bose condensates 11 but is a much simpler system: we will illustrate that it has Cat-like ground states over a wide range of parameters, a fact that has not been widely appreciated. In a separate development, recent studies of spin-1 Bose gases with antiferromagnetic interactions show that strict spin conservation leads to fragmented ground states, which can be Fock like (with zero spin fluctuation) or superfragmented (with N 2 spin fluctuation), depending on the magnetization of the system. 8 Although the superfragmented states of spin-1 Bose gas and ground states of attractive Bose gas in double wells assume very different forms, the origin of their formation is the same and arises from the existence of degenerate minima of the interaction energy, and the quantum fluctuations between those minima. In contrast, a Fock state is caused by a single deep minimum in the interaction energy, which strongly suppresses the number fluctuations. This mechanism can be seen File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 2/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 The Schrödinger Cat Family in Attractive Bose Gases 259 in spin-1 Bose gases, and is best illustrated in the double well example below. 2. THE TWO-SITE BOSE-HUBBARD MODEL Consider the Hamiltonian U H=−t(a †b+b †a)+ [na (na − 1)+nb (nb − 1)], 2 (1) with na +nb =N, where a and b destroy bosons at site (well) a and b, na =a †a, nb =b †b, N is the total number of bosons, t > 0 is the tunneling matrix element, and U is the interaction between particles which has the same sign as the s-wave scattering length. 14 Equation (1) is meant to describe the actual system when reduced to the lowest doublet (a ± b). Although other (residual) terms appear in the reduction to an effective Hamiltonian, and t, U in Eq. (1) depend on the condensate density, we shall not consider such features here because they do not affect the basic physics of the problem (i.e., the competition between tunneling and interaction). Instead, we shall focus on the simple model given by Eq. (1), which deserves to be studied in its own right. For a system with N bosons, the Hilbert space is 3 |aP=: N2+a, N2 − a 84 , |a| [ N/2, (2) where |Na , Nb P — a †Na b †Nb |0P/`Na ! Nb ! is the state with Na bosons at site a and Nb bosons at site b. We shall take N even, a choice of convenience that has no effects on our results. If |YP=; a Ya |aP is an eigenstate with energy E, Eq. (1) implies EYa =−(ta − 1 Ya − 1 +ta Ya+1 )+Ua 2 Ya , (3) where ta =`N2 ( N2+1) − a(a+1). It is clear that ta strongly favors large amplitudes near a=0. This is reflected in the non-interacting ground state 1 |CP= (a †+b †) N |0P, `2 NN! (4) which shows that Y Ca is a Gaussian centered at a=0 with a width 2 1/4 −a 2/N sc =`N/2 since Y Ca % ( pN ) e for N ± 1. When U > 0, the potential Ua 2 suppresses particle fluctuations between a and b, narrowing the File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 3/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 260 T.-L. Ho and C. V. Ciobanu Gaussian toward the delta-function da=0 , (corresponding to the Fock state |N/2, N/2P). 1, 2 The ground state for general U > 0 (referred to as the ‘‘repulsive family’’) is Y (+) a =Gs (a), 2 1 2 1 U 2= 2+ s N tN 2 1/2 (5) 2 where Gs (a)=e −a /2s /(ps 2) 1/4. Equation (5) 15 follows from the fact that in the continuum limit Eq. (3) near a=0 is the Schrödinger equation of a simple harmonic oscillator. For U < 0, the potential Ua 2 favors large amplitudes at a=± N/2. It competes strongly with tunneling and tends to split the Gaussian Y Ca at U=0 into two weakly overlapping Gaussians. These features are found in the numerical solutions of Eq. (3), which also show that the ground state (referred to as the ‘‘attractive family’’) is, to a good approximation, given by L R Y (−) a =Q(Y a +Y a ) (6) (R) (L) where Q is a normalization factor, Y (R) a =Gs (a − A), Y a =Y −a . Figure 1 shows the amplitudes Ya of the ground state |YP as a function of a, for different UN/t [ 0. In other words, the ground state is a superposition of the coherent/Fock-like states |LP and |RP, |Y (−)P=Q(|LP+|RP), |LP=C Gs (q) |q̃PN+ , N − , q |RP=C Gs (q) |q̃PN − , N+ , (7) q Fig. 1. Numerical solution of Y (−) calculated from Eq. (1) for difa ferent UN/t for a system with N=1000 particles. The results for U < 0 can be well fitted by the functional form in Eq. (6) with begins parameters A and s shown in Fig. 2. For UN/t < − 2, Y (−) a to split into two Gaussians. The split-up is complete for UN/t % − 2.1. File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 4/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 The Schrödinger Cat Family in Attractive Bose Gases 261 where |q̃PN+ , N − — |N++q, N− − qP, N± =N2 ± A, and N+ is the average number of a (or b) particle in |LP (or |RP). We also found numerically that the quantities A g — 2A/N and s g — s/sc (sc =`N/2) depend only on the combination UN/t, 16 with a dividing behavior at UN/t=−2 as shown in Fig. 2. As UN/t decreases below − 2, we have A Q N/2 and s Q 0. The system is driven towards the ‘‘extreme’’ Cat state |N, 0P+|0, NP |Cat gP= . `2 (8) In fact, the overlap between |LP and |RP vanishes rapidly when A > s, or A g/s g > `2/N. For a system with N=1000 particles, we have found that |LP and |RP cease to overlap when UN/t < − 2.1; thus, for these values of UN/t, the system is essentially a superposition to two non-overlapping mesoscopic condensates. 3. FRAGMENTATION AND SUPER-FRAGMENTATION That the interaction will lead to fragmentation can be seen from the single-particle density matrices of both |Y (+)P and |Y (−)P, which can be written as r̂ — R Oa †aP Oa †bP Ob aP † S R S N 1 x = , 2 x 1 Ob bP † 2 where x=e −1/(4s ) for the repulsive case (i.e., |Y (+)P with s given in Eq. (5)), 2 2 2 2 2 ) 2+e −(A+1/2) /s )/(1+e −A /s ) for the attractive and x=(e −1/(4s ) `1 − ( 2A N case (i.e., |Y (−)P with s given in Eq. (6) and Fig. 2). The eigenvalues of r̂ are l ± =(N/2)(1 ± x). When U Q 0, we have x=1 for both signs of U, and r̂ has only one macroscopic eigenvalue (l+=N and l − =0). This is expected since the ground state reduces to the coherent state |CP. As |U| increases, x Q 0 for both signs of U. The condensate becomes fragmented since both eigenvalues of r̂ become macroscopic, l+, l − Q N/2. However, when examining the internal number fluctuations DN 2a — O(Na − ONa P) 2P, one finds DN 2a =s 2/2 for |Y (+)P, which vanishes as U/tN 2 2 increases. In contrast, for |Y (−)P DN 2a =s4 + −A2A 2/s 2 is of order N 2 since 1+e A ’ N and s ’ `N for large |U| N/t. The values of DN 2a obtained from the numerical solution of Eq. (3) are shown in Fig. 2. We have plotted ln(4 DN 2a )/ln N instead of DN 2a because the former assumes the simple File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 5/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 262 T.-L. Ho and C. V. Ciobanu Fig. 2. With the solutions of Eq. (1) for U < 0 well fitted by Eq. (6), we find that for different values of N, U, t, each of the parameters A g — A/(N/2), s g — s/sc , and ln(4 DN 2a )/ln N falls onto a single curve when plotted against UN/t. Note that ln(4 DN 2a )/ln N=2 for the Cat state (|N, 0P+|0, NP)/`2, and that ln(4 DN 2a )/ln N=1 for the coherent state |CP, Eq. (4). At UN/t=−2, ln(4 DN 2a )/ ln N=1.32. values of 2 and 1 for the ‘‘extreme’’ Cat state |Cat gP and the coherent state |CP, respectively. Figure 2 shows that DN 2a reaches a substantial fraction of its maximum value of N 2/4 over the interval − 3 < UN/t − 2. Thus, from the viewpoint of achieving a superfragmented structure, it is not necessary to go deeply into the Cat regime characterized by U < 0 and |UN/t| ± 1. At first sight, such an interval may seem physically irrelevant because for any finite interval D(UN/t), the corresponding range in U/t vanishes as 1/N in the thermodynamic limit, and the system is either deep in the Cat regime or is a coherent state depending on whether U < 0 or U=0. This, however, is not true. In general, the tunneling matrix element t depends on an energy barrier Vo in an exponential fashion, ln t 3 − Vo . 17 Thus, the range DVo corresponding to the interval D(UN/t) is only proportional to ln N, making the system highly tunable from one regime to another. Two other considerations also make this transition region relevant. Firstly, quantum gases are mesoscopic instead of macroscopic systems, with N < 10 5 instead of N ’ 10 23. Secondly, recent experiments have shown that the scattering length of Rb 85 can be tuned through zero by varying the external magnetic field. 18 Therefore, it is possible to have a system with a small UN even for N as high as 10 5. The fact that the ground state changes continuously from a coherent to a Cat-like structure over a wide range of parameter allows us to explore the phase coherence of the system while the crossover takes place. File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 6/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 The Schrödinger Cat Family in Attractive Bose Gases 263 4. INTERFERENCE OF THE ATTRACTIVE BOSE GAS IN SUPERFRAGMENTED REGIME As mentioned, many authors have pointed out that there are no distinctions between the interference patterns of a coherent state and a Fock state. Numerical evidence of this effect was given Javanainen and Yoo (JY). 3 Later, using analogies with quantum optics, Castin and Dalibard (CD) simulated the particle collection process by the ‘‘beam splitter’’ operators a ± b and showed explicitly how the measurement process changes a Fock state into a coherent state. 6 The exact spatial pattern, however, has not been derived. In the following, we shall modify the calculation of CD to obtain the spatial interference pattern of the attractive family described by Eq. (6). We shall see that the operators for particle collection are different from the ‘‘beam splitter’’ operators. Furthermore, our calculation furnishes another derivation of JY’s result 3 when applied to Fock states. To illustrate the key features, it is sufficient to consider the onedimensional case. At time t=0, the trap is turned off and the condensates in wells a and b begin to expand and to overlap. For simplicity, we shall assume the atoms expand as non-interacting particles for t > 0, which 2 m implies k̂(x, t)=`i2p(t > ds e iM(x − s) /2(t k̂(s). If a and b are Wannier states localized at ± xo , we then have k(s) % c(e iz(x)/2a+e −iz(x)/2b), z(x)= 2 2 m e iM(x +x o )/2(t. If the bosons were photons, the (2xo M/(t) x, and c=`i 2p(t operators (a+b) k+ (a − b) k− represent detecting different number of photons in different beam splitters. However, in an interference experiment, particle detections are products of k̂(x, t), which are specific combinations of a and b rather than products of (a+b) k+ (a − b) k−. Next we consider a sequence of D particle detectors located at xi , i=1, 2, . . ., D. The joint probability of detecting a total of k particles (k ° N) with ki particles in the detector at xi can be written as (see Appendix): (N − k)! k! ||Ô |YPN || 2, P({ki })= N! < Di=1 ki ! (9) where Ô=< i k̂ k i (xi ) removes ki particles at xi , |YPN is a normalized state with N particles, and ; Di=1 ki =k. The measured density at xi is given by the most probable set {k̄i } which optimizes P({ki }), i.e., n(xj )=k̄j . In case there are many such sets, the measured density will change from experiment to experiment, as each experiment samples a different optimal set. For Cat like states (Eq. (6)), we have P({ki })=Q 2[PL ({ki })+PR ({ki }) +PLR ({ki })], where PL and PR are Eq. (9) evaluated at |YP=|LP and |RP, File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 7/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 264 T.-L. Ho and C. V. Ciobanu and PLR is Eq. (9) with the norm replaced by OL| Ô †Ô |RP+OR| Ô †Ô |LP. Since PLR depends on the overlap of |LP and |RP, it is non-vanishing only within the range of UN/t for which A < s. For A > s, P is dominated by PL and PR , and the interference pattern n(xj ) is proportional to k̄ Lj +k̄ Rj , where {k̄ Li } and {k̄ Ri } are the optimal set of PL and PR , respectively. To calculate {k̄ Lj }, we consider the coherent state 1 |a, bP N = (ua †+vb †) N |0P `N! (10) where u — e −ia/2 cos b2 , v=e ia/2 sin b2 , cos 2 b2 — N+/N. It follows from Eq. (10) that Oa †aP=N+, Ob †bP=N− , N± — N/2 ± A. Equation (10) has the expansion −i(A+q) a |a, bPN =C Y (o) |q̃P N q e +, N − q (11) 2 where Y (o) q =Gso (q) with s o =2N+ N− /N up to 1/N+ , 1/N− corrections. Inverting Eq. (11), we can express |q̃P N , N and hence |LP [Eq. (7)] in + − terms of |a, bPN . We then have Ô |LP=C C f(q) F q p −p da ia(A+q) D e D [Wx i (a)] k i |a, bPN − k 2p i=1 (12) where f(q)=Gs (q)/Gso (q), Wx (a)=e iz(x)/2u+e −iz(x)/2v, and C=c k `(NN! . − k)! Since |a, bPN − k is close to the Fock state e iAa |N+, N− P, and since the range of q is restricted to 1/s, the combination e ia(A+q) |a, bPN − k varies slowly with a. Since ki ± 1, one can use the method of steepest descents to determine the phase angle a g that maximizes the magnitude < Di=1 |Wx i (a)| k i , and we have Ô |LP 3 |a gP. This shows that the measurement process (specified by the set {ki }) projects the state |LP into the coherent state |a g, bP. To calculate PL , we note that OaŒ, b | a, bP % exp[− ( N 8− k sin 2 b)(aŒ − a) 2 A +i N (N − k)(aŒ − a)] for N − k ± 1. We then have PL ({ki })=gk! F D |W (a)| 2k i da xi |f̃(a)| 2 D 2p ki ! i=1 2 (13) 2 −2 where f̃(a)=; q f(q) e iaq=`so /s ; q e −q /2s eff e iaq, where s eff =s o−2 +s −2, 8p and g=`(N − k) sin 2 b . As the ground state becomes more Cat-like, s Q 0, f̃(a) has a weak a dependence. To find the optimal set {k̄ Li }, we rewrite the File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 8/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 The Schrödinger Cat Family in Attractive Bose Gases 265 ki ! in Eq. (13) using Stirling’s formula, and optimize the product in Eq. (13) subject to the constraint ; Di=1 ki =k. One then obtains k̄ Li 3 |Wx i (a g)| 2, or 5 k̄ Li =l 1+sin b cos 1 2Mx(t x − a 26 , o g (14) where l is a constant. The stationary condition for a g can be derived in a straightforward manner and will not be presented here. Repeating the calculation for PR we find k̄ Ri =k̄ Li . The measured density n(xj )=k̄ Lj +k̄ Rj therefore consists of a uniform background and a sinusoidal oscillation with wavevector ( −1M(2xo /t). The amplitude of oscillation sinb vanishes as the systems becomes more Cat-like, since b Q 0 as A Q N/2. This is in contrast to the repulsive case, where the interference pattern is independent of the barrier height which causes the system to fragment into a Fock state. APPENDIX Equation (9) was derived in Ref. 6 using continuous quantum measurement theory. It can also be derived from the following elementary considerations. For a complete set of states (labelled by p) with creation operators {A †p }, the probability of detecting a particle in state i in an N-particle system |YP is: OA † A P ||A |YP|| 2 . P (1)= i i Y = i NO1PY N |||YP|| 2 (15) The probability of detecting a second particle in state i after the first particle is detected (provided that the state evolves very little between detections) is ||A i (A i |YP)|| 2 P (2)= . (N − 1) ||A i |YP|| 2 (16) The joint probability of detecting ki particles in state i is (N − k)! ||A ki i |YP|| 2 (k − 1) (1) P (k) P · · · P = . i i i N! |||YP|| 2 (17) Equation (9) is obtained by generalizing to the detection of more than one state, and with A i replaced by k̂(xi ). The combinatoric factors in ki account for the arbitrary ordering in the detection of different i states. File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 9/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004 266 T.-L. Ho and C. V. Ciobanu ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Tin-Lun Ho would like to thank Mark Kasevich for pointing out the similarity between the attractive Bose gas in a double well potential and the systems described in Ref. 11, and for discussions of his experiments during the Aspen Workshop (1999). We gratefully acknowledge support from NASA (Grant NAG8-1441) and NSF (Grants DMR-9705295 and DMR9807284). C. V. Ciobanu was supported through a Presidential Fellowship from The Ohio State University. REFERENCES 1. 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The tunnelling barrier Vo is proportional to the intensity of the laser that produces the barrier, so it can be controlled by tuning the laser intensity. 18. S. L. Cornish, N. R. Claussen, J. L. Roberts, E. A. Cornell, and C. E. Wieman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1795 (2000). File: KAPP/901-jolt/135_3-4 485758(10p) - Page : 10/10 - Op: SD - Time: 08:28 - Date: 25:03:2004