Beyond Spontaneously Broken Symmetry in Bose-Einstein Condensates
Abstract
Spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) for Bose-Einstein condensates cannot treat phase off-diagonal effects, and thus cannot explain Bell inequality violations. We describe another situation that is beyond a SSB treatment: an experiment where particles from two (possibly macroscopic) condensate sources are used for conjugate measurements of the relative phase and populations. Off-diagonal phase effects are characterized by a “quantum angle” and observed via “population oscillations,” signaling quantum interference of macroscopically distinct states.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- April 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.150401
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0912.5360
- Bibcode:
- 2010PhRvL.104o0401M
- Keywords:
-
- 03.65.Ta;
- 03.65.Ud;
- 03.75.Gg;
- 03.75.Mn;
- Foundations of quantum mechanics;
- measurement theory;
- Entanglement and quantum nonlocality;
- Entanglement and decoherence in Bose-Einstein condensates;
- Multicomponent condensates;
- spinor condensates;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 10 pages 4 figures