中国物理B ›› 2015, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (5): 50507-050507.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/24/5/050507

所属专题: TOPICAL REVIEW — Precision measurement and cold matters

• TOPICAL REVIEW—Precision measurement and cold matters • 上一篇    下一篇

Superfluidity of Bose–Einstein condensates in ultracold atomic gases

朱起忠a, 吴飙a b c   

  1. a International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
    b Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
    c Wilczek Quantum Center, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
  • 收稿日期:2015-01-23 修回日期:2015-03-23 出版日期:2015-05-05 发布日期:2015-05-05
  • 基金资助:

    Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2013CB921903 and 2012CB921300) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11274024, 11334001, and 11429402).

Superfluidity of Bose–Einstein condensates in ultracold atomic gases

Zhu Qi-Zhong (朱起忠)a, Wu Biao (吴飙)a b c   

  1. a International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
    b Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
    c Wilczek Quantum Center, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
  • Received:2015-01-23 Revised:2015-03-23 Online:2015-05-05 Published:2015-05-05
  • Contact: Wu Biao E-mail:wubiao@pku.edu.cn
  • About author:05.30.Jp; 03.75.Mn; 03.75.Kk; 71.70.Ej
  • Supported by:

    Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2013CB921903 and 2012CB921300) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11274024, 11334001, and 11429402).

摘要:

Liquid helium 4 had been the only bosonic superfluid available in experiments for a long time. This situation was changed in 1995, when a new superfluid was born with the realization of the Bose–Einstein condensation in ultracold atomic gases. The liquid helium 4 is strongly interacting and has no spin; there is almost no way to change its parameters, such as interaction strength and density. The new superfluid, Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC), offers various advantages over liquid helium. On the one hand, BEC is weakly interacting and has spin degrees of freedom. On the other hand, it is convenient to tune almost all the parameters of a BEC, for example, the kinetic energy by spin–orbit coupling, the density by the external potential, and the interaction by Feshbach resonance. Great efforts have been devoted to studying these new aspects, and the results have greatly enriched our understanding of superfluidity. Here we review these developments by focusing on the stability and critical velocity of various superfluids. The BEC systems considered include a uniform superfluid in free space, a superfluid with its density periodically modulated, a superfluid with artificially engineered spin–orbit coupling, and a superfluid of pure spin current. Due to the weak interaction, these BEC systems can be well described by the mean-field Gross–Pitaevskii theory and their superfluidity, in particular critical velocities, can be examined with the aid of Bogoliubov excitations. Experimental proposals to observe these new aspects of superfluidity are discussed.

关键词: superfluidity, Bose–, Einstein condensation, ultracold atomic gases, Gross–, Pitaevskii theory

Abstract:

Liquid helium 4 had been the only bosonic superfluid available in experiments for a long time. This situation was changed in 1995, when a new superfluid was born with the realization of the Bose–Einstein condensation in ultracold atomic gases. The liquid helium 4 is strongly interacting and has no spin; there is almost no way to change its parameters, such as interaction strength and density. The new superfluid, Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC), offers various advantages over liquid helium. On the one hand, BEC is weakly interacting and has spin degrees of freedom. On the other hand, it is convenient to tune almost all the parameters of a BEC, for example, the kinetic energy by spin–orbit coupling, the density by the external potential, and the interaction by Feshbach resonance. Great efforts have been devoted to studying these new aspects, and the results have greatly enriched our understanding of superfluidity. Here we review these developments by focusing on the stability and critical velocity of various superfluids. The BEC systems considered include a uniform superfluid in free space, a superfluid with its density periodically modulated, a superfluid with artificially engineered spin–orbit coupling, and a superfluid of pure spin current. Due to the weak interaction, these BEC systems can be well described by the mean-field Gross–Pitaevskii theory and their superfluidity, in particular critical velocities, can be examined with the aid of Bogoliubov excitations. Experimental proposals to observe these new aspects of superfluidity are discussed.

Key words: superfluidity, Bose–, Einstein condensation, ultracold atomic gases, Gross–, Pitaevskii theory

中图分类号:  (Boson systems)

  • 05.30.Jp
03.75.Mn (Multicomponent condensates; spinor condensates) 03.75.Kk (Dynamic properties of condensates; collective and hydrodynamic excitations, superfluid flow) 71.70.Ej (Spin-orbit coupling, Zeeman and Stark splitting, Jahn-Teller effect)