Healing length 2026-10-06
The healing length of a repulsive homogeneous condensate is the length at which density-gradient kinetic energy and interaction energy balance. The displayed convention sets the dimensionless Laplacian coefficient to one in the stationary Gross–Pitaevskii equation. A hard-wall number density profile has width ; definitions without the factor occur, so the equation and convention must be specified.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 343 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
An impenetrable hard wall imposes the Dirichlet boundary condition . Choose the bulk complex argument to be zero and write a stationary solution as with as . The dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equation becomesMultiplication by and use of the bulk limit yield the first integralfor the increasing wall profile. Integrating gives the hard-wall condensate healing profileThe PDF's expression without the factor is correct for the normalized number density , not for the dimensional number density defined at the start of the paper. For example, a bulk number density must approach , whereas the literal printed expression approaches . If both number density and coordinates in this part are understood to have already been normalized, the same result reads and the dimensionless width is . These are two descriptions of the same profile, not different physical healing lengths.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 343 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the nonzero homogeneous number density from the previous part, with . SetThe length is the conventional healing length in this normalization. In the dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equation, and . Substitution and division by therefore giveor equivalently the requested form. The factor two in the time scale is necessary: using instead would leave a coefficient . The normalized number density is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 343 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Take a singly quantized vortex of positive circulation. The superfluid velocity is , where is the complex argument of the condensate. Since , quantized circulation gives . Insert the radial Thomas–Fermi approximation for a condensate into the cylindrical volume integral, excluding the core :Integrating the logarithmic and quadratic terms separately givesThe logarithm is the familiar long-range flow contribution of a quantum vortex; the comes from the declining trapped number density. If the bucket truncates the cloud, put and the same integration gives , provided . A vortex of integer winding number has and multiplies this flow energy by . The core radius acts as a cutoff of order the local healing length; its internal gradient and interaction energies are not computed by this shell estimate.
Thomas–Fermi approximation for a condensate 2026-10-06
Neglecting density-gradient kinetic energy in the stationary Gross–Pitaevskii equation gives for repulsive interactions. For a radial harmonic trap , this is with . Hard boundaries can truncate this natural support. The approximation fails in vortex cores and boundary healing regions and requires a cloud much larger than its healing length.