Published November 2010 | Version v1
Journal article

Ground states of trapped spin-1 condensates in magnetic field

  • 1. Instytut Fizyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, PL-02-668 Warsaw (Poland)

Description

We consider a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a harmonic potential under the influence of a homogeneous magnetic field. We investigate spatial and spin structure of the mean-field ground states under constraints on the number of atoms and the total magnetization. We show that the trapping potential can make the antiferromagnetic condensate separate into three distinct phases and ferromagnetic condensate into two distinct phases. In the ferromagnetic case, the magnetization is located in the center of the harmonic trap, while in the antiferromagnetic case magnetized phases appear in the outer regions. We describe how the transition from the Thomas-Fermi regime to the single-mode approximation regime with decreasing number of atoms results in the disappearance of the domains. We suggest that the ground states can be created in experiment by adiabatically changing the magnetic-field strength.

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. A
Journal Volume
82
Journal Issue
5
Journal Page Range
p. 053630-053630.8
ISSN
1050-2947
CODEN
PLRAAN

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2010 The American Physical Society