Weakly interacting Bose gas ($n_{\mathrm{ex}}/n\ll 1$)

A dilute condensed Bose system whose interaction is sufficiently weak for a small-depletion expansion. Its low-energy excitations are described by a Bogoliubov transformation rather than free particles. The homogeneous quadratic theory is controlled only while noncondensate occupation remains small compared with the condensate and its excitation energies are stable.

For a three-dimensional repulsive gas at zero temperature, leading quantum depletion is $(n-n_0)/n=8\sqrt{n{a}_s^3}/(3\sqrt{\pi })$. Small gas parameter controls the expansion; this expression does not apply unchanged in lower dimensions.

Expand an interacting Bose field about a macroscopically occupied condensate and retain terms quadratic in its fluctuations. A Bogoliubov transformation diagonalizes the stable quadratic Hamiltonian. For contact repulsion this gives the Bogoliubov quasiparticle dispersion $E_k=\sqrt{{ϵ}_k({ϵ}_k+2g_B{n}_0)}$, a linear sound mode at small momentum and particle-like behavior at large momentum. Mixing creation and annihilation operators also produces quantum depletion of a Bose condensate. The approximation requires controlled fluctuations; it does not give an exact strongly interacting liquid or the full fluctuation-dominated critical region.

For a weakly depleted homogeneous Bose gas with repulsive contact interaction, set $g=uN/V$ and ${ϵ}_k={\hslash }^2{k}^2/(2m)$. A zero-mode coherent state times a two-mode squeezed vacuum for each opposite-momentum pair has mean particle number $N=N_0+{\sum }_{k\ne 0}{\sinh }^2{\theta }_k$. Substitution of $N_0=N-\sum {\sinh }^2{\theta }_k$ into the leading condensate interaction energy, followed by a consistent quadratic truncation, gives the displayed variational energy. Omitting this substitution loses the subtraction embodied in the number-conserving Bogoliubov quadratic Hamiltonian.

For each mode set $A_k={ϵ}_k+g$ and $E_k=\sqrt{A_k^2-g^2}$. If $A_k>|g|$, choose $\tanh (2{\theta }_k^{\ast })=g/A_k$. The mode contribution equals $\frac{1}{2}{E}_k\cosh [2({\theta }_k-{\theta }_k^{\ast })]-A_k/2$, proving a unique minimum $(E_k-A_k)/2$. At fixed ultraviolet cutoff this lowers the energy relative to the uncorrelated condensate. The approximation requires small quantum depletion of a Bose condensate; an unregulated three-dimensional ground-state energy also requires renormalization of a three-dimensional dilute-gas contact coupling.

Expand a weakly depleted Bose gas around its macroscopically occupied mode. Replacing a condensate operator by an amplitude of order $\sqrt{N}$ gives quadratic, cubic and quartic fluctuation interaction scales proportional to $N{N}_{\mathrm{ex}}$, $\sqrt{N}{N}_{\mathrm{ex}}^{3/2}$ and $N_{\mathrm{ex}}^2$, with the same interaction-volume factor. Thus the depletion fraction supplies formal amplitude counting. This is not a uniform bound on infrared modes or a substitute for checking the interaction regime. At fixed particle number, expansion of the condensate interaction must precede the final quadratic truncation; the resulting cancellation is the number-conserving Bogoliubov quadratic Hamiltonian.

In a box of size $L$, confinement energy scales as ${\hslash }^2/(m{L}^2)$, transition temperature as that scale times $N^{2/3}$, and mean interaction energy as ${\hslash }^{2}Na/(m{L}^3)$. The displayed window therefore makes interaction energy large compared with confinement but small compared with $k_B{T}_c$. It simultaneously implies dilute-gas parameter $n{a}^3\ll 1$. Ground-state interaction dominance does not require a large relative shift of the condensation temperature.

One linear Bogoliubov branch $E_k=\hslash c_{s}k$ in three dimensions gives thermal energy ${\pi }^{2}V(k_{B}T{)}^4/(30{\hslash }^3{c}_s^3)$ and the displayed cubic heat capacity. There is one branch, rather than the three polarizations in a simple crystal's Debye model. The regime requires $\hslash c_s/L\ll k_{B}T\ll \mu$ for a box: the lower inequality permits a continuum integral, and the upper one selects phonons. Fixed finite boxes ultimately have discrete-level behaviour.

For a uniform dilute repulsive gas, the periodic complex-field integral has uniform saddle $n_0=\mu /g$ for $\mu >0$. The paired Gaussian fluctuation kernel has determinant $(\hslash {\omega }_n{)}^2+{\epsilon }_k({\epsilon }_k+2g{n}_0)$, giving the Bogoliubov spectrum. In three dimensions the physical low-energy coupling is $g=4\pi {\hslash }^2{a}_s/m$ and the weak-depletion parameter is $n{a}_s^3\ll 1$. Contact coupling beyond mean field needs ultraviolet matching to the scattering length.

The regulated bare coupling $g_0$ is matched to the physical two-body scattering length. In the uniform one-loop grand potential this matching supplies the subtraction that makes $\frac{1}{2}\int d^{3}k/(2\pi {)}^3[E_k-{\epsilon }_k-\mu +{\mu }^2/(2{\epsilon }_k)]$ ultraviolet finite. Merely using the physical coupling in an unregulated zero-point integral would retain a divergent answer. The contact description and its cutoff cannot be extended to arbitrary momenta independently of that matching.

Expand a repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate around the real uniform saddle ${\psi }_0=\sqrt{\mu /g}$ as $\psi ={\psi }_0+\chi$. After removing a constant and a temporal boundary term, the quadratic Lagrangian density is the displayed expression. Its equation $i\hslash \dot{\chi }=-{\hslash }^2{\nabla }^2\chi /(2M)+\mu (\chi +{\chi }^{\ast })$ mixes a fluctuation and its complex conjugate. Writing $\chi ={\chi }_1+i{\chi }_2$ gives canonically paired amplitude and phase fluctuations and one positive Bogoliubov quasiparticle dispersion branch, $\hslash \omega =\sqrt{{ϵ}_k({ϵ}_k+2\mu )}$ with ${ϵ}_k={\hslash }^2{k}^2/(2M)$. The phase direction is a Goldstone mode; its zero uniform restoring force does not produce a second independent positive-frequency amplitude branch in this first-order-in-time theory.

For a repulsive contact-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate, the classical Hamiltonian density generating evolution in a frame rotating at the chemical potential is $\mathcal{K}={\hslash }^2|\nabla \psi {|}^2/(2M)-\mu |\psi {|}^2+g|\psi {|}^4/2$. Its integral is the grand canonical ensemble generator $H-\mu N$, not the physical energy $H$ alone. For $g,\mu >0$ the uniform mean-field theory minima satisfy $|{\psi }_0{|}^2=\mu /g$, with a freely chosen constant phase. In the physical frame, the corresponding field has time factor $e^{-i\mu t/\hslash }$.

In units $\hslash =1$, polar fields rewrite the coherent-state action asafter removing the periodic total density derivative. The potential has positive-density minimum ${\rho }_0=\mu /g$ for $\mu >0$. Density curvature gives a finite static amplitude cost, while phase changes cost only derivatives. Number-phase conjugacy couples their dynamics; the two fields do not automatically represent two independent excitation branches.

Expand the density-phase action of a Bose gas around ${\rho }_0=\mu /g>0$ and a constant phase. Density and phase are coupled by $i\delta \rho {\partial }_{\tau }\varphi$, and retaining density gradients gives the full quadratic Bogoliubov spectrum. Dropping those gradients is a long-wavelength approximation. A small-fluctuation Gaussian extension around ${\rho }_0$ does not exactly remove the original nonnegative-density constraint.

A positive density curvature $g$ makes uniform static density fluctuations costly. It does not imply an additional independent gapped excitation: the first-order term makes density and phase conjugate. For a simple nonrelativistic weakly interacting Bose gas, their coupled quadratic dynamics yields one positive Bogoliubov spectrum, which is gapless at zero momentum. The word massive for the density field describes its static curvature in this setting.

In the smooth zero-winding long-wave sector, integrate the density Gaussian integral by completing $g(\delta \rho +i{\partial }_{\tau }\varphi /g{)}^2/2$. Its field-independent normalization leaves the displayed action. The real-frequency pole is ${\omega }^2=g{\rho }_0{k}^2/m$, so the phonon speed is $\sqrt{g{\rho }_0/m}$. Keeping density gradients yields ${\omega }^2=g{\rho }_0{k}^2/m+k^4/(4m^2)$, matching the Bogoliubov spectrum.

The Bose-gas phase-only action gives a thermal infrared integral $\int d^{d}q/q^2$ and a zero-temperature equal-time integral $\int d^{d}q/|q|$. Thus an infinite uniform short-range interacting gas has no true finite-temperature condensate in $d\le 2$, and the one-dimensional ground state also lacks true condensate long-range order. This does not exclude local density coherence, a finite-size condensate description or two-dimensional algebraic order and superfluidity.^[ref]

A periodic complex field permits $\varphi (\beta ,\mathbf{r})-\varphi (0,\mathbf{r})=2\pi w(\mathbf{r})$. Its uniform-density first-order term is therefore a winding-dependent imaginary action, not generally a removable global constant. It vanishes in the smooth zero-winding sector used for Gaussian phonons. Density defects and vortices require more than that smooth-sector approximation.

Conservation of particle number corresponds to global circle group phase rotations of a nonrelativistic Bose field. A positive-density uniform mean-field saddle chooses a phase, with degenerate saddle manifold a circle. The associated Goldstone boson is the long-wavelength phase mode. This is a thermodynamic symmetry-selection statement; an exact finite-volume number eigenstate does not itself choose a phase.

The quasiparticle vacuum contains physical particles at nonzero momentum because the Bogoliubov transformation mixes creation and annihilation operators. Their occupation is $v_k^2=(A_k/E_k-1)/2$, and the depletion density is its momentum sum divided by the volume. At nonzero temperature an additional $(A_k/E_k)n_B(E_k)$ contribution is required; quantum depletion alone is a zero-temperature expression.

The stable quadratic spectrum is $E_k=\sqrt{{ϵ}_k({ϵ}_k+2n{V}_k)}$. If $V_k\to V_0>0$, its low-momentum form is $\hslash |k|\sqrt{n{V}_0/m}$, a linear sound branch. For contact repulsion the healing length separates the phonon and particle regimes. General momentum-dependent interactions can change the higher-energy shape.

A normal mode of linearized condensate dynamics with particle and hole components. Quantizing a suitably normalized mode gives a Bogoliubov quasiparticle. The density and phase components of one mode share a frequency; that fact alone does not establish a twofold excitation degeneracy.

At fixed total particle number, $N_0=N-{\sum }_{k\ne 0}{b}_k^{†}{b}_k$. Expanding the condensate interaction energy subtracts $n{V}_0$ from the normal excited-particle coefficient, cancelling its direct Hartree term. The resulting quadratic coefficients are $A_k={ϵ}_k+n{V}_k$ and $B_k=n{V}_k$, with an opposite-momentum anomalous pair term. Replacing $N_0$ by $N$ before making this correction loses the cancellation.