Observation of critical scaling in the Bose gas universality class

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kleebank, Leon, Vewinger, Frank, Camacho-Guardian, Arturo, Romero-Rochín, Victor, Paredes, Rosario, Weitz, Martin, Schmitt, Julian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kleebank, Leon
Vewinger, Frank
Camacho-Guardian, Arturo
Romero-Rochín, Victor
Paredes, Rosario
Weitz, Martin
Schmitt, Julian
author_facet Kleebank, Leon
Vewinger, Frank
Camacho-Guardian, Arturo
Romero-Rochín, Victor
Paredes, Rosario
Weitz, Martin
Schmitt, Julian
contents Critical exponents characterize the divergent scaling of thermodynamic quantities near phase transitions and allow for the classification of physical systems into universality classes. While quantum gases thermalizing by interparticle interactions fall into the XY model universality class, the ideal Bose gas has been predicted to form a distinct universality class whose signatures have not yet been revealed experimentally. Here, we report the observation of critical scaling in a two-dimensional quantum gas of essentially noninteracting photons, which thermalize by radiative contact to a reservoir of molecules inside a microcavity. By measuring the spatial correlations near the condensation transition, we determine the critical exponent for the correlation length to be $ν= 0.52(3)$. Our results constitute a first experimental test of the long-standing scaling predictions for the Bose gas universality class.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_14754
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Observation of critical scaling in the Bose gas universality class
Kleebank, Leon
Vewinger, Frank
Camacho-Guardian, Arturo
Romero-Rochín, Victor
Paredes, Rosario
Weitz, Martin
Schmitt, Julian
Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
Critical exponents characterize the divergent scaling of thermodynamic quantities near phase transitions and allow for the classification of physical systems into universality classes. While quantum gases thermalizing by interparticle interactions fall into the XY model universality class, the ideal Bose gas has been predicted to form a distinct universality class whose signatures have not yet been revealed experimentally. Here, we report the observation of critical scaling in a two-dimensional quantum gas of essentially noninteracting photons, which thermalize by radiative contact to a reservoir of molecules inside a microcavity. By measuring the spatial correlations near the condensation transition, we determine the critical exponent for the correlation length to be $ν= 0.52(3)$. Our results constitute a first experimental test of the long-standing scaling predictions for the Bose gas universality class.
title Observation of critical scaling in the Bose gas universality class
topic Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14754