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Observation of scale invariance and universality in two-dimensional Bose gases

Nature volume 470, pages 236–239 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

The collective behaviour of a many-body system near a continuous phase transition is insensitive to the details of its microscopic physics; for example, thermodynamic observables follow generalized scaling laws near the phase transition1. The Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) phase transition2,3 in two-dimensional Bose gases presents a particularly interesting case because the marginal dimensionality and intrinsic scaling symmetry4 result in a broad fluctuation regime and an extended range of universal scaling behaviour. Studies of the BKT transition in cold atoms have stimulated great interest in recent years5,6,7,8,9,10, but a clear demonstration of critical behaviour near the phase transition has remained elusive. Here we report in situ density and density-fluctuation measurements of two-dimensional Bose gases of caesium at different temperatures and interaction strengths, observing scale-invariant, universal behaviours. The extracted thermodynamic functions confirm the existence of a wide universal region near the BKT phase transition, and provide a sensitive test of the universality predicted by classical-field theory11,12 and quantum Monte Carlo calculations13. Our experimental results provide evidence for growing density–density correlations in the fluctuation region, and call for further explorations of universal phenomena in classical and quantum critical physics.

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Figure 1: Illustration of scale invariance and universality in 2D quantum gases.
Figure 2: Scale invariance of density and its fluctuation.
Figure 3: Universal behaviour near the BKT critical point.
Figure 4: Fluctuation versus compressibility.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Q. Zhou, B. Svistunov, T.-L. Ho, Y. Castin, C.-C. Chien, S. Tung, N. Prokof'ev, J. Freerick and D.-W. Wang for discussions. This work was supported by the NSF (grant numbers PHY-0747907, NSF-MRSEC DMR-0213745), the Packard Foundation, and a grant from the Army Research Office with funding from the DARPA OLE program. N.G. acknowledges support from the Grainger Foundation.

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  1. Nathan Gemelke

    Present address: Present address: Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Chen-Lung Hung, Xibo Zhang, Nathan Gemelke & Cheng Chin

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Contributions

The data were taken and analysed by C.-L.H. The experimental concept was developed by C.-L.H. and C.C. All authors contributed to discussion of the results and preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chen-Lung Hung.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Hung, CL., Zhang, X., Gemelke, N. et al. Observation of scale invariance and universality in two-dimensional Bose gases. Nature 470, 236–239 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09722

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