Number Fluctuations and Energy Dissipation in Sodium Spinor Condensates

We characterize fluctuations in atom number and spin populations in F=1 sodium spinor condensates. We find that the fluctuations enable a quantitative measure of energy dissipation in the condensate. The time evolution of the population fluctuations shows a maximum. We interpret this as evidence of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Liu, Yingmei, Gomez, Eduardo, Maxwell, Stephen E, Turner, Lincoln D, Tiesinga, Eite, Lett, Paul D
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 11.06.2009
Subjects
Condensates
Energy dissipation
Energy measurement
Faraday effect
Physics - Other Condensed Matter
Variation
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:We characterize fluctuations in atom number and spin populations in F=1 sodium spinor condensates. We find that the fluctuations enable a quantitative measure of energy dissipation in the condensate. The time evolution of the population fluctuations shows a maximum. We interpret this as evidence of a dissipation-driven separatrix crossing in phase space. For a given initial state, the critical time to the separatrix crossing is found to depend exponentially on the magnetic field and linearly on condensate density. This crossing is confirmed by tracking the energy of the spinor condensate as well as by Faraday rotation spectroscopy. We also introduce a phenomenological model that describes the observed dissipation with a single coefficient.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0906.2110