Precise measurements on a quantum phase transition in antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates
Abstract
We have experimentally investigated the quench dynamics of antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates in the vicinity of a zero temperature quantum phase transition at zero quadratic Zeeman shift . The rate of instability shows good agreement with predictions based upon solutions to the Bogoliubov de-Gennes equations. A key feature of this work was removal of magnetic field inhomogeneities, resulting in a steep change in behavior near the transition point. The quadratic Zeeman shift at the transition point was resolved to 250 milliHertz uncertainty, equivalent to an energy resolution of picoKelvin. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of sub-Hz precision measurement of a phase transition in quantum gases. Our results point to the use of dynamics, rather than equilibrium studies for high precision measurements of phase transitions in quantum gases.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1610.07228,
title = {Precise measurements on a quantum phase transition in antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates},
author = {A. Vinit and C. Raman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.07228},
year = {2017}
}