1112.2799 (Hui Hu et al.)

Critical temperature of a Rashba spin-orbit coupled Bose gas in harmonic
traps    [PDF]

Hui Hu, Xia-Ji Liu

We investigate theoretically Bose-Einstein condensation of an ideal, trapped
Bose gas in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Analytic results for
the critical temperature and condensate fraction are derived, based on a
semi-classical approximation to the single-particle energy spectrum and density
of states, and are compared with exact results obtained by explicitly summing
discrete energy levels for small number of particles. We find a significant
decrease of the critical temperature and of the condensate fraction due to a
finite spin-orbit coupling. For large coupling strength and finite number of
particles $N$, the critical temperature scales as $N^{2/5}$ and $N^{2/3}$ in
three and two dimensions, respectively, contrasted to the predictions of
$N^{1/3}$ and $N^{1/2}$ in the absence of spin-orbit coupling. Finite size
corrections in three dimensions are also discussed.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.2799