Spin squeezing and entanglement in spinor condensates -: art. no. 033611

We analyze quantum correlation properties of a spinor-1 (f=1) Bose-Einstein condensate using the Gell-Mann realization of SU(3) symmetry. We show that previously discussed phenomena of condensate fragmentation and spin mixing can be explained in terms of the hypercharge symmetry. The ground state of a spinor-1 condensate is found to be fragmented for ferromagnetic interactions. The notion of two-bosonic-mode squeezing is generalized to the two-spin (U-V) squeezing within the SU(3) formalism. Spin squeezing in the isospin subspace (T) is found and is numerically investigated. We also provide results for the stationary states of spinor-1 condensates.