Spin domains in ground state of a trapped spin-1 condensate: a general study under Thomas–Fermi approximation

Abstract

Investigation of ground state structures and phase separation under confinement is of great interest in spinor Bose–Einstein condensates. In this paper we show that, in general, within the Thomas–Fermi approximation, the phase separation scenario of stationary states can be obtained including all the mixed states on an equal footing for a spin-1 condensate under any confinement. According to the process used here, the density of each and every stationary states can be determined exactly in terms of the system parameters. This allows to write the expression for energy density of all states in a form which are not an explicit function of densities of those states. An energy density comparison therefore, among all the allowed stationary states can be done which will reveal domain structures depending on the system parameters. We study here, in details, a particular case of spherically symmetric harmonic confinement as an example and show a wide range of potential phase separation scenario for anti-ferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions.