No Arabic abstract
The so-called grand canonical catastrophe of the density fluctuations in the ideal Bose gas is shown to be a particular instance of the much more general phenomenon of condensation of fluctuations, taking place in a large system, in or out of equilibrium, when a single degree of freedom makes a macroscopic contribution to the fluctuations of an extensive quantity. The pathological character of the catastrophe is demystified by emphasizing the connection between experimental conditions and statistical ensembles, as demonstrated by the recent realization of photon condensation under grand canonical conditions.
In this paper we take a fresh look at the long standing issue of the nature of macroscopic density fluctuations in the grand canonical treatment of the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). Exploiting the close analogy between the spherical and mean-spherical models of magnetism with the canonical and grand canonical treatment of the ideal Bose gas, we show that BEC stands for different phenomena in the two ensembles: an ordering transition of the type familiar from ferromagnetism in the canonical ensemble and condensation of fluctuations, i.e. growth of macroscopic fluctuations in a single degree of freedom, without ordering, in the grand canonical case. We further clarify that this is a manifestation of nonequivalence of the ensembles, due to the existence of long range correlations in the grand canonical one. Our results shed new light on the recent experimental realization of BEC in a photon gas, suggesting that the observed BEC when prepared under grand canonical conditions is an instance of condensation of fluctuations.
Bose-Einstein condensation, the macroscopic occupation of a single quantum state, appears in equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics and persists also in the hydrodynamic regime close to equilibrium. Here we show that even when a degenerate Bose gas is driven into a steady state far from equilibrium, where the notion of a single-particle ground state becomes meaningless, Bose-Einstein condensation survives in a generalized form: the unambiguous selection of an odd number of states acquiring large occupations. Within mean-field theory we derive a criterion for when a single and when multiple states are Bose selected in a non-interacting gas. We study the effect in several driven-dissipative model systems, and propose a quantum switch for heat conductivity based on shifting between one and three selected states.
We present a microscopic theory of the second order phase transition in an interacting Bose gas that allows one to describe formation of an ordered condensate phase from a disordered phase across an entire critical region continuously. We derive the exact fundamental equations for a condensate wave function and the Green functions, which are valid both inside and outside the critical region. They are reduced to the usual Gross-Pitaevskii and Beliaev-Popov equations in a low-temperature limit outside the critical region. The theory is readily extendable to other phase transitions, in particular, in the physics of condensed matter and quantum fields.
We present a self-contained theory for the exact calculation of particle number counting statistics of non-interacting indistinguishable particles in the canonical ensemble. This general framework introduces the concept of auxiliary partition functions, and represents a unification of previous distinct approaches with many known results appearing as direct consequences of the developed mathematical structure. In addition, we introduce a general decomposition of the correlations between occupation numbers in terms of the occupation numbers of individual energy levels, that is valid for both non-degenerate and degenerate spectra. To demonstrate the applicability of the theory in the presence of degeneracy, we compute energy level correlations up to fourth order in a bosonic ring in the presence of a magnetic field.
We establish the quantum fluctuations $Delta Q_B^2$ of the charge $Q_B$ accumulated at the boundary of an insulator as an integral tool to characterize phase transitions where a direct gap closes (and reopens), typically occurring for insulators with topological properties. The power of this characterization lies in its capability to treat different kinds of insulators on equal footing; being applicable to transitions between topological and non-topological band, Anderson, and Mott insulators alike. In the vicinity of the phase transition we find a universal scaling $Delta Q_B^2(E_g)$ as function of the gap size $E_g$ and determine its generic form in various dimensions. For prototypical phase transitions with a massive Dirac-like bulk spectrum we demonstrate a scaling with the inverse gap in one dimension and a logarithmic one in two dimensions.