ASSIGNMENT 7: QM of many particles

August 13, 2020

1 Weakly repulsive Bose gas

Consider a dilute weakly repulsive Bose gas of particles of mass m and density ρ at
T = 0, with a finite condensate fraction ρ0 close to 1. Assume that the repulsive
interaction between the Bosons is a contact interaction, U δ(r − r0 ).
i) Show that the ground state of the system is defined by the vacuum of the Bogoli-
ubov quasiparticles αp† = cosh θp a†p + sinh θp a−p , where a is the annihilation operator
for the original bosons and tanh 2θp = U ρ/(p2 /2m + U ρ). This has been done in
class, but repeat the exercise to familiarize yourself with the algebra.
ii) Show that αp = Λap Λ−1 where the unitary transformation
 
X θp
Λ = exp  (ap a−p − a†p a†−p )
2
p6=0

Hence show that the ground state is given by |ψG i = Λ|ψ0 i, where |ψ0 i is the non-
interacting ground state (U = 0)
iii) Plot the dispersion of the quasiparticles in appropriate units (You need to specify
what is the most obvious choice for units in this case). What is the energy scale upto
which linear dispersion is valid? (we want the scale, not necessarily a number).
iv) Calculate the momentum distribution of the bosons nk = ha†k ak i and plot the
function in appropriate units. What is the asymptotic form of the momentum distribu-
tion as (a) k → ∞ and (b) k → 0?
v) In this problem, we have not specified the dimension of space in which the
Bosons move till now, which shows that results derived above are independent of di-
mensions. Now consider the gas in 3D. From the momentum distribution, calculate the
condensate fraction in terms of the density of the gas, ρ, the mass of the particles, m
and interaction parameter U . Relate the interaction co-efficient U with as within first
order Born approximation in scattering and express your answer in terms of as rather
than U . What is the criterion of validity of the approximations we used in the process?
Consider the same problem, but now in 1-D. Show, by explicit calculation of the
condensate fraction, that there is no BEC formation in 1-D at any density. Is this
an artifact of considering a contact interaction, in other words, would we have BEC
formation in 1-D if we considered a smoother potential like a gaussian?

1
 What happens in 2-D?
vi) Calculate the ground state energy of the system in 3D and show that it diverges.
The divergence comes from behaviour of large p modes and is called an ultra-violet
divergence. This occurs because we have considered a contact interaction which has
constant Fourier components. Any realistic potential would have a range r0 and hence
its Fourier amplitude would decay beyond p ∼ 1/r0 . In this sense a contact interaction
is a “zero-range” interaction. We can fix this by considering a realistic potential
2 2
U (r) = U e−r /2a . Find the ground state energy of the Bose gas for this potential and
show that there is no divergence.
Otherwise, we can stick to the contact interaction, but we cannot relate U to as by
the first Born approximation. Consider scattering with contact interaction and relate
U to as in 2nd Born approximation. Show that, with this relation (which involves a
formally divergent quantity) between U and as , there is no divergence in the ground
state energy, when expressed in terms of as . Find the finite ground state energy.
Frrom this ground state energy, calculate the pressure of the interacting Bose gas
as function of na3s
vii) Consider the number equation in 3D at T = 0 and solve it to obtain µ in
leading order of na3s . Hence show that the compressibility is finite in this system. Find
the compressibility in leading order of na3s .
viii) Consider now the same system with an attractive interaction U → −U . Show
that the excitation spectrum is imaginary for a range of p values. Find the range.
This shows that the Bose gas with attractive interactions is thermodynamically un-
stable. An imaginary frequency implies that in dynamics, e−iEt → e|E|t . So, if the
finite momentum state has any amplitude, it grows exponentially with time. The expo-
nentially growing modes are a hallmark of unstable states, any small fluctuation gets
amplified and takes you away from the state you constructed. This is different from
excitation energies going negative, which signifies an energetic instability, i.e. those
modes with negative energy would be occupied in your ground-state.

2 Non-interacting Bose gas is not a superfluid

Show that although BEC is possible in a non-interacting Bose gas in 3D, it cannot be a
superfluid system.