Weakly interacting Bose gas in the vicinity of the critical point

Abstract

We consider a three-dimensional weakly interacting Bose gas in the fluctuation region (and its vicinity) of the normal-superfluid phase transition point. We establish relations between basic thermodynamic functions: density, $n(T,\mu )$, superfluid density $n_s(T,\mu )$, and condensate density, $n_{\mathrm{cnd}}(T,\mu )$. Being universal for all weakly interacting $|\psi {|}^4$ systems, these relations are obtained from Monte Carlo simulations of the classical $|\psi {|}^4$ model on a lattice. Comparing with the mean-field results yields a quantitative estimate of the fluctuation region size. Away from the fluctuation region, on the superfluid side, all the data perfectly agree with the predictions of the quasicondensate mean field theory.--This demonstrates that the only effect of the leading above-the-mean-field corrections in the condensate based treatments is to replace the condensate density with the quasicondensate one in all local thermodynamic relations. Surprisingly, we find that a significant fraction of the density profile of a loosely trapped atomic gas might correspond to the fluctuation region.

14 pages, Latex, 8 figures