Emission of Spin-correlated Matter-wave Jets from Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensates

Abstract

We report the observation of matter-wave jet emission in a strongly ferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate of ${}^7$Li atoms. Directional atomic beams with $|F=1,m_F=1⟩$ and $|F=1,m_F=-1⟩$ spin states are generated from $|F=1,m_F=0⟩$ state condensates, or vice versa. This results from collective spin-mixing scattering events, where spontaneously produced pairs of atoms with opposite momentum facilitates additional spin-mixing collisions as they pass through the condensates. The matter-wave jets of different spin states ($|F=1,m_F=\pm 1⟩$) can be a macroscopic Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen state with spacelike separation. Its spin-momentum correlations are studied by using the angular correlation function for each spin state. Rotating the spin axis, the inter-spin and intra-spin momentum correlation peaks display a high contrast oscillation, indicating collective coherence of the atomic ensembles. We provide numerical calculations that describe the experimental results at a quantitative level and can identify its entanglement after 100~ms of a long time-of-flight.

13 pages(6 main text, 7 supplemental material), 12 figures