Kazimierz Rzążewski

Solitons as the early stage of quasicondensate formation during evaporative cooling.

We calculate the evaporative cooling dynamics of trapped one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates for parameters leading to a range of condensates and quasicondensates in the final equilibrium state, using the classical fields method. We confirm that solitons are created during the evaporation process by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, but subsequently dissipate during thermalization. However, their signature remains in the phase coherence length, which is approximately conserved during dissipation in this system.

Multi-mode description of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the equilibrium dynamics of a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a box. In our approach we use a semiclassical approximation similar to the description of a multi-mode laser. In dynamical equations derived from a full N-body quantum Hamiltonian we substitute all creation (and annihilation) operators (of a particle in a given box state) by appropriate c-number amplitudes. The set of nonlinear equations obtained in this way is solved numerically. We show that on the time scale of a few miliseconds the system exhibits relaxation -- reaches an equilibrium with populations of different eigenstates fluctuating around their mean values.

Spontaneous Solitons in the Thermal Equilibrium of a Quasi-1D Bose Gas

We show that solitons occur generically in the thermal equilibrium state of a weakly interacting elongated Bose gas, without the need for external forcing or perturbations. This reveals a major new quality to the experimentally widespread quasicondensate state, usually thought of as primarily phase-fluctuating. Thermal solitons are seen in uniform 1D, trapped 1D, and elongated 3D gases, appearing as shallow solitons at low quasicondensate temperatures, becoming widespread and deep as temperature rises. This behavior can be understood via thermal occupation of the type II excitations in the Lieb-Liniger model of a uniform 1D gas. Furthermore, we find that the quasicondensate phase includes very appreciable density fluctuations while leaving phase fluctuations largely unaltered from the standard picture derived from a density-fluctuation-free treatment.

Imaging single Rydberg electrons in a Bose–Einstein condensate

The quantum mechanical states of electrons in atoms and molecules are distinct orbitals, which are fundamental for our understanding of atoms, molecules and solids. Electronic orbitals determine a wide range of basic atomic properties, allowing also for the explanation of many chemical processes. Here, we propose a novel technique to optically image the shape of electron orbitals of neutral atoms using electron-phonon coupling in a Bose-Einstein condensate. To validate our model we carefully analyze the impact of a single Rydberg electron onto a condensate and compare the results to experimental data. Our scheme requires only well-established experimental techniques that are readily available and allows for the direct capture of textbook-like spatial images of single electronic orbitals in a single shot experiment.

Revivals in an attractive Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential and their decoherence

We study the dynamics of ultracold attractive atoms in a weakly linked two potential wells. We consider an unbalanced initial state and monitor dynamics of the population difference between the two wells. The average imbalance between wells undergoes damped oscillations, like in a classical counterpart, but then it revives almost to the initial value. We explain in details the whole behavior using three different models of the system. Furthermore we investigate the sensitivity of the revivals on the decoherence caused by one- and three-body losses. We include the dissipative processes using appropriate master equations and solve them using the stochastic wave approximation method.

Correspondence between dark solitons and the type II excitations of the Lieb-Liniger model

A one-dimensional model of bosons with repulsive short-range interactions, solved analytically by Lieb and Liniger many years ago, predicts existence of two branches of elementary excitations. One of them represents Bogoliubov phonons, the other, as suggested by some authors, might be related to dark solitons. On the other hand, it has been already demonstrated within a framework of the classical field approximation that quasi-one-dimensional interacting Bose gas at equilibrium exhibits excitations which are phonons and dark solitons. By showing that statistical distributions of dark solitons obtained within the classical field approximation match the distributions of quasiparticles of the second kind derived from fully quantum description we demonstrate that type II excitations in the Lieb-Liniger model are, indeed, quantum solitons.

Dipolar dark solitons

We numerically generate, and then study the basic properties of dark soliton-like excitations in a dipolar gas confined in a quasi one dimensional trap. These excitations, although very similar to dark solitons in a gas with contact interaction, interact with each other and can form bound states. During collisions these dipolar solitons emit phonons, loosing energy, but accelerating. Even after thousands of subsequent collisions they survive as gray solitons and finally reach dynamical equilibrium with background quasiparticles. Finally, in the frame of classical field approximation, we verified, that these solitons appear spontaneously in thermal samples, analogously to the type II excitations in a gas of atoms with contact interaction.

Statistical properties of one-dimensional attractive Bose gas

Using the classical field approximation we present the first study of statistical properties of one-dimensional Bose gas with attractive interaction. The canonical probability distribution is generated with the help of a Monte Carlo method. This way we obtain not only the depletion of the condensate with growing temperature but also its fluctuations. The most important is our discovery of a reduced coherence length, the phenomenon observed earlier only for the repulsive gas, known as quasicondensation.

Free expansion of a Bose?Einstein condensate in the presence of a thermal cloud

We investigate numerically the free-fall expansion of a 87Rb atom condensate at nonzero temperatures. The classical field approximation is used to separate the condensate and the thermal cloud during the expansion. We calculate the radial and axial widths of the expanding condensate and find clear evidence that the thermal component changes the dynamics of the condensate. Our results are contrasted with the experimental data.

Fluctuations of a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

Fluctuations of the number of condensed atoms in a finite-size, weakly interacting Bose gas confined in a box potential are investigated for temperatures up to the critical region. The canonical partition functions are evaluated using a recursive scheme for smaller systems, and a saddle-point approximation for larger samples that allows to treat realistic size systems containing up to N~105 particles. We point out the importance of particle-number constraint and interactions between out of condensate atoms for the statistics near the critical region. For sufficiently large systems, the crossover from the anomalous to normal scaling of the fluctuations is observed. The excitations are described in a self-consistent way within the Bogoliubov-Popov approximation, and the interactions between thermal atoms are described by means of the Hartree-Fock method.