1998/11/01 by J. Stenger, S. Inouye, Dan Stamper-Kurn +6 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Angular momentum #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Bose–Einstein condensate #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) #Ground state #Magnetic field #Physics #Population #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Scalar (mathematics) #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spinor #Superfluidity #Zeeman effect #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/24567
published as Nature 396 (1998) p. 345 · 5 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 1998/11/01 · arxiv created 1999/01/08 · arxiv updated 2015/06/25 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute atomic gases, characterized by a macroscopic population of the quantum mechanical ground state, are a new, weakly interacting quantum fluid. In most experiments condensates in a single weak field seeking state are magnetically trapped. These condensates can be described by a scalar order parameter similar to the spinless superfluid 4He. Even though alkali atoms have angular momentum, the spin orientation is not a degree of freedom because spin flips lead to untrapped states and are therefore a loss process. In contrast, the recently realized optical trap for sodium condensates confines atoms independently of their spin orientation. This opens the possibility to study spinor condensates which represent a system with a vector order parameter instead of a scalar. Here we report a study of the equilibrium state of spinor condensates in an optical trap. The freedom of spin orientation leads to the formation of spin domains in an external magnetic field. The structure of these domains are illustrated in spin domain diagrams. Combinations of both miscible and immiscible spin components were realized.