Mapping the phase diagram of spinor condensates via adiabatic quantum phase transitions

TL;DR

This paper experimentally explores quantum phase transitions in sodium spinor condensates using adiabatic tuning of microwave fields, revealing new phase diagram regions and validating mean-field theory predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel adiabatic method to map the phase diagram of spinor condensates, overcoming previous experimental limitations and applicable to various atomic species.

Findings

Successful experimental mapping of phase transitions.

Identification of previously unexplored phase regions.

Agreement with mean-field theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We experimentally study two quantum phase transitions in a sodium spinor condensate immersed in a microwave dressing field. We also demonstrate that many previously unexplored regions in the phase diagram of spinor condensates can be investigated by adiabatically tuning the microwave field across one of the two quantum phase transitions. This method overcomes two major experimental challenges associated with some widely used methods, and is applicable to other atomic species. Agreements between our data and the mean-field theory for spinor Bose gases are also discussed.