# Quantum and thermal fluctuations in a Raman spin-orbit coupled Bose gas

## TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive theoretical analysis of a three-dimensional Bose gas with Raman-induced spin-orbit coupling at finite temperature, revealing how quantum and thermal fluctuations influence phase stability and sound velocity, aligning with recent experiments.

## Contribution

It introduces a complete finite-temperature phase diagram for spin-orbit coupled Bose gases using a generalized Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory with Popov approximation, highlighting fluctuation effects.

## Key findings

- Thermal fluctuations significantly broaden the plane-wave phase.
- Quantum fluctuations induce an unexpected gap in sound velocity at zero temperature.
- Thermal fluctuations enlarge the sound velocity gap and shift the critical minimum at finite temperature.

## Abstract

We theoretically study a three-dimensional weakly-interacting Bose gas with Raman-induced spin-orbit coupling at finite temperature. By employing a generalized Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory with Popov approximation, we determine a complete finite-temperature phase diagram of three exotic condensation phases (i.e., the stripe, plane-wave and zero-momentum phases), against both quantum and thermal fluctuations. We find that the plane-wave phase is significantly broadened by thermal fluctuations. The phonon mode and sound velocity at the transition from the plane-wave phase to the zero-momentum phase are thoughtfully analyzed. At zero temperature, we find that quantum fluctuations open an unexpected gap in sound velocity at the phase transition, in stark contrast to the previous theoretical prediction of a vanishing sound velocity. At finite temperature, thermal fluctuations continue to significantly enlarge the gap, and simultaneously shift the critical minimum. For a Bose gas of $^{87}$Rb atoms at the typical experimental temperature, $T=0.3T_{0}$, where $T_{0}$ is the critical temperature of an ideal Bose gas without spin-orbit coupling, our results of gap opening and critical minimum shifting in the sound velocity, are qualitatively consistent with the recent experimental observation {[}S.-C. Ji \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{114}, 105301 (2015){]}.