Condensate-profile asymmetry of a boson mixture in a disk-shaped harmonic trap

TL;DR

This study uses quantum Monte Carlo simulations to investigate symmetry-breaking phase transitions in a two-component boson mixture confined in a disk-shaped trap, revealing new insights beyond mean-field predictions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the occurrence of a symmetry-breaking phase transition in a boson mixture using quantum Monte Carlo methods, providing detailed analysis beyond mean-field approximations.

Findings

System undergoes a phase transition breaking spatial symmetry.

Particle distributions and angular correlations reveal transition characteristics.

Results differ from mean-field predictions, highlighting quantum effects.

Abstract

A mixture of two types of hard-sphere bosons in a disk-shaped harmonic trap is studied through path-integral quantum Monte Carlo simulation at low temperature. We find that the system can undergo a phase transition to break the spatial symmetry of the model Hamiltonian when some of the model parameters are varied. The nature of such a phase transition is analyzed through the particle distributions and angular correlation functions. Comparisons are made between our calculations and the available mean-field results on similar models. Possible future experiments are suggested to verify our findings.