Vortex formation in neutron-irradiated superfluid 3He as an analogue of cosmological defect formation

Ruutu, V. M. H.; Eltsov, V. B.; Gill, A.; Kibble, T. W. B.; Krusius, M.; Makhlin, Yuriy; Plaçais, Bernard; Volovik, G. E.; Xu, Wen

doi:10.1038/382334a0

Cited by 570 publications

(431 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…6,7 Later, the corresponding experiments were carried out using the second-order superfluid phase-transitions of liquid 4 He 8 and liquid 3 He. 9,10 All these experiments produced defect densities reported as being consistent with Zurek's estimates. [3][4][5] In this paper we describe an improved version of the 4 He experiment 8 in which particular care has been taken to minimise the production of topological defects (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Untitled

Dodd

Hendry

Lawson

et al. 1999

Journal of Low Temperature Physics

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Untitled

Dodd

Hendry

Lawson

et al. 1999

Journal of Low Temperature Physics

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“…Analogues of cosmological topological defect formation have been studied using liquid crystals [24] and superfluid helium [25,26,27]. In comparison with these previous experiments, the present investigation focuses on a simpler physical system, in which the time for thermal equilibration and symmetry breaking is much longer than that needed to bring the system across the symmetry-breaking transition.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a quenched ferromagnetic spinor Bose–Einstein condensate

Sadler

Higbie²,

Leslie³

et al. 2006

Nature

928

1,084

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A central goal in condensed matter and modern atomic physics is the exploration of manybody quantum phases and the universal characteristics of quantum phase transitions in so far as they differ from those established for thermal phase transitions. Compared with condensedmatter systems, atomic gases are more precisely constructed and also provide the unique opportunity to explore quantum dynamics far from equilibrium. Here we identify a second-order quantum phase transition in a gaseous spinor BoseEinstein condensate, a quantum fluid in which superfluidity and magnetism, both associated with symmetry breaking, are simultaneously realized. 87 Rb spinor condensates were rapidly quenched across this transition to a ferromagnetic state and probed using in-situ magnetization imaging to observe spontaneous symmetry breaking through the formation of spin textures, ferromagnetic domains and domain walls. The observation of topological defects produced by this symmetry breaking, identified as polar-core spin-vortices containing non-zero spin current but no net mass current, represents the first phase-sensitive in-situ detection of vortices in a gaseous superfluid.Most ultracold atomic gases consist of atoms with nonzero total angular momentum denoted by the quantum number F , which is the sum of the total electronic angular momentum and nuclear spin. In spinor atomic gases, such as F = 1 and F = 2 gases of 23 Na [1, 2] and 87 Rb [3,4], all magnetic sublevels representing all orientations of the atomic spin may be realized [5]. The phase coherent portion of a Bose-Einsein condensed spinor gas is described by a vector order parameter and therefore exhibits spontaneous magnetic ordering. Nevertheless, considerable freedom remains for the type of ordering that can occur. For 87 Rb F = 1 spinor gases, the spindependent energy per particle in the condensate is the sum of two terms, c 2 n F 2 + q F 2 z , where F denotes the dimensionless spin vector operator. The first term describes spin-dependent interatomic interactions, with n being the number density and c 2 = (4π 2 /3m)(a 2 − a 0 ) depending on the atomic mass m and the s-wave scattering lengths a f for collisions between pairs of particles with total spin f [6,7]. Given c 2 < 0 for our system [3,4,8,9], the interaction term alone favors a ferromagnetic phase with broken rotational symmetry. The second term describes a quadratic Zeeman shift in our experiment, with q = (h × 70 Hz/G 2 )B 2 at a magnetic field of magnitude B [10]. This term favors instead a scalar phase with no net magnetization, i.e. a condensate in the |m z = 0 magnetic sublevel. These phases are divided by a second-order quantum phase transition at q = 2|c 2 |n.This article describes our observation of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a 87 Rb spinor BEC that is rapidly quenched across this quantum phase transition. Nearlypure spinor Bose-Einstein condensates were prepared in the scalar |m z = 0 phase at a high quadratic Zeeman shift (q ≫ 2|c 2 |n). By rapidly reducing the magnitude of the applied magneti...

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“…In particular, phase transitions in liquid crystals 10{12 and in liquid 3 He 13,14 have been shown to result in extensive defect formation at densities consistgent with the theoretical predictions. The reason why the Kibble mechanism should work in liquid crystals and liquid 3 He, but apparently not in liquid 4 He, is not known.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Untitled

Hendry

Lawson

McClintock

2000

Journal of Low Temperature Physics

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A rapid passage of liquid 4 He through the lambda (super uid) transition is expected (W.H. Zurek, Nature 317, 505; 1985) to result in the production of topological defects (quantized vortices) through the Kibble mechanism, the same process that is believed to have produced cosmic strings at the GUT phase transition of the early universe. But recent experiments (Dodd et al, Phys. Rev. Lett 81, 3703; 1998)) show that the density of vortices created, if any, seems to be smaller than predicted by a factor of at least 100. Possible ways of improving the sensitivity of the experiment are discussed.

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Vortex formation in neutron-irradiated superfluid 3He as an analogue of cosmological defect formation

Cited by 570 publications

References 11 publications

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Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a quenched ferromagnetic spinor Bose–Einstein condensate

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