Phase transition between two-component and three-component ground states of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

For an antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate under an applied uniform magnetic field, its ground state $(\psi_1,\psi_0,\psi_{-1})$ undergoes a phase transition from a two-component state ($\psi_0 \equiv 0$) to a three-component state ($\psi_j\ne 0$ for all $j$) at a critical value of the magnetic field. This phenomenon has been observed in numerical simulations as well as in experiments. In this paper, we provide a mathematical proof based on a simple principle found by the authors: a redistribution of the mass densities between different components will decrease the kinetic energy.