Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / iii / Paper 75 / 4

Use natural units $\hslash =k_B=1$ for the action conventions of this question. Insert the coherent-state resolution of identity between imaginary-time steps and take the thermal trace. Coherent-state time slicing gives the normally ordered interaction and first-order time term:The fields obey the coherent-state thermal boundary conditions $\psi (\beta ,\mathbf{r})=\psi (0,\mathbf{r})$ and $\bar{\psi }(\beta ,\mathbf{r})=\bar{\psi }(0,\mathbf{r})$. Bosonic Matsubara frequencies are therefore $2\pi n/\beta$. A periodic spatial box can be chosen for the homogeneous bulk calculation; temporal periodicity follows from the trace independently of that spatial choice. The barred and unbarred labels belong to the coherent-state integral prescription, with the usual conjugate contour for bosonic Gaussian integral.

A homogeneous static saddle minimizes $f(\rho )=-\mu \rho +g{\rho }^2/2$ for $\rho =|\psi {|}^2\ge 0$. With $g>0$ and $\mu >0$,The mean-field Bose-Einstein condensate has a macroscopic coherent occupation of the uniform mode. Its continuous particle-number phase symmetry is $\psi \mapsto e^{i\chi }\psi$, the circle group $U(1)$ generated by particle number. Choosing one phase breaks it, and the saddle manifold is a circle. For $\mu \le 0$, the constrained minimum is the vacuum ${\rho }_0=0$, so the condensed saddle requires the stated positive-density regime.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking is understood through a phase-selected thermodynamic description: an exact finite-volume number eigenstate has vanishing field expectation. The resulting Goldstone boson is a gapless phase/sound mode, while phase gradients carry the superfluid velocity $\mathbf{v}=\nabla \varphi /m$. This is the saddle-point conclusion requested, not a proof of true condensate order in every dimension or temperature. Long-wavelength phase fluctuations can invalidate the assumed order, as quantified below.

The density-phase action of a Bose gas follows directly from $\psi =\sqrt{\rho }{e}^{i\varphi }$:The total derivative integrates to zero for periodic density. HenceA uniform density fluctuation has nonzero quadratic cost $g(\delta \rho {)}^2/2$, whereas a uniform phase change has no energy cost. Thus the radial fluctuation is massive in the static quadratic-action sense, while the phase is massless. The number-phase conjugacy term $i\delta \rho {\partial }_{\tau }\varphi$ couples their dynamics: this does not imply an additional independent gapped quasiparticle branch in the nonrelativistic Bose gas.

The compact phase winding term $i{\rho }_0\int {\partial }_{\tau }\varphi$ vanishes for the smooth zero-winding phonon sector. Globally the phase can wind by $2\pi$ while the complex field remains periodic, so that term should not be discarded across all topological sectors without a further argument.

Put $\rho ={\rho }_0+\delta \rho$ and retain quadratic fluctuations in the smooth zero-winding sector. The quadratic density-phase action isAt wavelengths long compared with the healing length, drop the density-gradient term. Completing the square givesThe real Gaussian density integral, or its equivalent contour shift, contributes only a field-independent determinant. Absorb that normalization and the uniform saddle action into $S_0$. To this quadratic long-wave accuracy,The Gaussian extension of $\delta \rho$ to the full real line is a fluctuation approximation around positive ${\rho }_0$; it is not an exact replacement of the global density constraint. The compact field's vortex/winding sectors also lie beyond this smooth-phonon integral.

The Bose-gas phase-only action is a continuum harmonic chain with Euclidean inverse propagator ${\omega }_n^2/g+{\rho }_0{k}^2/m$. Continuing to real frequency givesRestoring $\hslash$ gives $E_k\sim \hslash c_s|k|$ for a wavenumber $k$. This is the phonon branch of the Bogoliubov spectrum. Keeping the omitted density-gradient term replaces $g$ by $g+k^2/(4m{\rho }_0)$ and yields $E_k^2=c_s^2{k}^2+k^4/(4m^2)$ in the adopted units, so the full quadratic spectrum is $\sqrt{{ϵ}_k({ϵ}_k+2g{\rho }_0)}$ with ${ϵ}_k=k^2/(2m)$.

The phase-only action also tests the condensate assumption. At zero temperature its equal-time phase variance has an infrared contribution $\int d^{d}k/|k|$, logarithmically divergent in one dimension; at positive temperature the zero Matsubara mode gives $\int d^{d}k/k^2$, divergent in dimensions at or below two. Thus this same low-energy theory exposes the regimes where the mean-field condensate cannot describe true thermodynamic long-range order. It permits a finite infrared fluctuation at zero temperature for $d\ge 2$ and at positive temperature for $d>2$, within the remaining weak-coupling assumptions.