Spontaneous symmetry breaking and defect formation in a quenched ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

Author

Stamper-Kurn, Dan M. ; Sadler, Lorraine E. ; Higbie, James M. ; Vengalattore, Mukund ; Leslie, Sabrina R.

Author_Institution

Phys. Dept., Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA

fYear

2006

fDate

21-26 May 2006

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

We observe spontaneous symmetry breaking in a ⁸⁷Rb spinor Bose condensate quenched across a quantum phase transition. This quench causes inhomogeneous ferromagnetic regions and topological defects to form in a magnetic quantum fluid.

Keywords

Bose-Einstein condensation; inhomogeneous media; magnetic fluids; quantum fluids; quantum optics; radiation quenching; rubidium; spontaneous symmetry breaking; ⁸⁷Rb; defect formation; inhomogeneous ferromagnetic region; interatomic interactions; magnetic quantum fluid; quantum phase transition; quenched ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate; spontaneous symmetry breaking; topological defects; Coherence; Magnetic fields; Magnetic liquids; Magnetic particles; Magnetic properties; Magnetic separation; Magnetization; Particle scattering; Physics; Stationary state; 020.0020 Atomic and molecular physics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2006 and 2006 Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference. CLEO/QELS 2006. Conference on

Conference_Location

Long Beach, CA

Print_ISBN

978-1-55752-813-1

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-55752-813-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2006.4629018

Filename

4629018