Fluctuations of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We develop theory for fluctuations in atom number and spin within finite-sized cells of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. This theory provides a model of measurements that can be performed in current experiments using finite resolution in situ imaging. We develop analytic results for quantum and thermodynamic limits of the fluctuations and apply our theory to the four equilibrium phases of a spin-1 condensate. We then validate these limits and examine the behavior over a wide parameter regime using numerical calculations specialized to the case of a spinor condensate confined to be quasi-two-dimensional.