Abstract
We show that the ground state of a spin-1 Bose gas with an antiferromagnetic interaction is a fragmented condensate in uniform magnetic fields. The number fluctuations in each spin component change rapidly from being enormous (order ) to exceedingly small (order 1) as the magnetization of the system increases. A fragmented condensate can be turned into a single condensate state by magnetic field gradients. The conditions for existence and method of detecting fragmented states are presented.
- Received 24 May 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.4031
©2000 American Physical Society