Finite-Temperature Density-Functional Theory of Bose-Einstein Condensates

The thermodynamic approach to density-functional theory (DFT) is used to derive a versatile theoretical framework for the treatment of finite-temperature (and in the limit, zero-temperature) Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The simplest application of this framework, using the overall density of bosons alone, would yield the DFT of Nunes [J. Phys. B 32, 4293 (1999)]. It is argued that a significant improvement in accuracy may be obtained by using additional density fields: the condensate amplitude and the anomalous density. Thus, two advanced schemes are suggested, one corresponding to a generalized two-fluid model of condensate systems, and another scheme, which explicitly accounts for anomalous density contributions and anomalous effective potentials. The latter reduces to the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach in the limit of weak interactions. For stronger interactions, a local-density approximation is suggested, but its implementation requires accurate data for the thermodynamic properties of uniform interacting BEC systems, including fictitious perturbed states of such systems. Provided that such data become available (e. g., from quantum Monte Carlo computation), DFT can be used to obtain high-accuracy theoretical results for the equilibrium states of BECs of various geometries and external potentials.