Stochastic gross-pitaevskii equation for the dynamical thermalization of Bose-Einstein condensates

• Main Authors: Liew, Timothy Chi Hin, Savenko, I. G., Shelykh, Ivan A.
• Other Authors: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Mathematics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/100621; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/9908
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We present a theory for the description of energy relaxation in a nonequilibrium condensate of bosonic particles. The approach is based on coupling to a thermal bath of other particles (e.g., phonons in a crystal, or noncondensed atoms in a cold atom system), which are treated with a Monte Carlo type approach. Together with a full account of particle-particle interactions, dynamic driving, and particle loss, this offers a complete description of recent experiments in which Bose-Einstein condensates are seen to relax their energy as they propagate in real space and time. As an example, we apply the theory to the solid-state system of microcavity exciton polaritons, in which nonequilibrium effects are particularly prominent.