Macroscopic properties of triplon Bose-Einstein condensates
Magnetic insulators can be characterized by a gap separating the singlet ground state from the lowest-energy triplet, S=1 excitation. If the gap can be closed by the Zeeman interaction in applied magnetic field, the resulting quasiparticles, triplons, can have concentrations sufficient to undergo the Bose-Einstein condensates transition. We consider macroscopic properties of the triplon Bose-Einstein condensates in the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approximation taking into account the anomalous averages. We prove that these averages play the qualitative role in the condensate properties. As a result, we show that with the increase in the external magnetic field at a given temperature, the condensate demonstrates an instability related to the appearance of nonzero phonon damping and a change in the characteristic dependence of the speed of sound on the magnetic field. The calculated magnetic susceptibility diverges when the external magnetic field approaches this instability threshold, providing a tool for the experimental verification of this approach. - Highlights: > A consistent theory of the triplon BEC should consider the anomalous density terms. > These terms strongly modify the macroscopic properties of the BEC. > They lead to the instability of the BEC in strong enough magnetic fields. > The instability can be observed in neutron scattering and magnetization experiments.