The Partition Function of a Spinor Gas
Abstract
For a spinor gas, i.e., a mixture of identical particles with several internal degrees of freedom, we derive the partition function in terms of the Feynman-Kac functionals of polarized components. As an example we study a spin-1 Bose gas with the spins subjected to an external magnetic field and confined by a parabolic potential. From the analysis of the free energy for a finite number of particles, we find that the specific heat of this ideal spinor gas as a function of temperature has two maxima: one is related to a Schottky anomaly, due to the lifting of the spin degeneracy by the external field, the other maximum is the signature of Bose-Einstein condensation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0001286,
title = {The Partition Function of a Spinor Gas},
author = {L. F. Lemmens and F. Brosens and J. T. Devreese},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0001286},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Revtex + 8 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E (March 1, 2000) E-mail addresses: lcnlmmns@ruca.ua.ac.be, brosens@uia.ua.ac.be, devreese@uia.ua.ac.be