Antiferromagnetic Spinor Condensates are Quantum Rotors

Abstract

We establish a theoretical correspondence between spin-one antiferromagnetic spinor condensates in an external magnetic field and quantum rotor models in an external potential. We show that the rotor model provides a conceptually clear picture of the possible phases and dynamical regimes of the antiferromagnetic condensate. We also show that this mapping simplifies calculations of the condensate's spectrum and wavefunctions. We use the rotor mapping to describe the different dynamical regimes recently observed in ${}^{23}$Na condensates. We also suggest a way to experimentally observe quantum mechanical effects (collapse and revival) in spinor condensates.

minor revisions. some typos corrected

References in corpus (5)

• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a quenched ferromagnetic spinor Bose condensate
• Fragmentation of Bose-Einstein Condensates
• Quantum Phase Transitions and Continuous Observation of Spinor Dynamics in an Antiferromagnetic Condensate
• Multi-resonant spinor dynamics in a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Quantum-Fluctuation-Driven Coherent Spin Dynamics in Small Condensates