Condensation transition and ensemble inequivalence in the Discrete Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation

Abstract

The thermodynamics of the discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in the vicinity of infinite temperature is explicitly solved in the microcanonical ensemble by means of large-deviation techniques. A first-order phase transition between a thermalized phase and a condensed (localized) one occurs at the infinite-temperature line. Inequivalence between statistical ensembles characterizes the condensed phase, where the grand-canonical representation does not apply. The control over finite size corrections of the microcanonical partition function allows to design an experimental test of delocalized negative-temperature states in lattices of cold atoms.