Finite Temperature Excitations of a trapped Bose gas by Feynman-Kac path integral approach

TL;DR

This paper uses a Feynman-Kac path integral Quantum Monte Carlo method to study finite temperature excitations in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate, achieving qualitative agreement with experiments and revealing temperature-dependent shifts.

Contribution

It introduces the first Monte Carlo approach based on Feynman-Kac path integrals to analyze BEC excitations at finite temperatures.

Findings

Qualitative agreement with experimental excitation modes

Upward shift in $m=0$ mode near 0.7 T_0 when including noncondensate effects

First Monte Carlo study of BEC excitations using this method

Abstract

We present results from a detailed Quantum Monte Carlo study of BEC applied to JILA experiment [Jin et al Phys. Rev. Lett. $\bf 78$, 764, 1997][1]. This is the first Monte Carlo approach(based on Feynman-Kac path integral method) to the above problem where good qualitative agreement is found for both the lowest lying $m=2$ and $m=0$ modes. We found an upward shift of the experimental data for $m=0$ mode at around $ T=0.7 T_0 $ ($T_0$ is defined as the predicted BEC transition temperature for harmonically confined ideal gas) when the effect of noncondensate was considered.