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Controlled Collapse of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Published

Author(s)

J L. Roberts, N R. Claussen, S L. Cornish, E A. Donley, Eric A. Cornell, C E. Wieman

Abstract

The point of instability of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) due to attractive interactions was studied. Stable 85Rb BECs were created and then caused to collapse by slowly changing the atom-atom interaction from repulsive to attractive using a Feshbach resonance. At a critical value, an abrupt transition was observed in which atoms were ejected from the condensate. By measuring the onset of this transition as a function of number and attractive interaction strength, we determined the stability condition to be N|a| ÷ aho = 0.459 0.012 0.054, slightly lower than the predicted value of 0.574.
Citation
Physical Review Letters
Volume
86
Issue
No. 19

Keywords

Bose-Einstein condensation, Feshbach resonances, laser trapping and cooling

Citation

Roberts, J. , Claussen, N. , Cornish, S. , Donley, E. , Cornell, E. and Wieman, C. (2001), Controlled Collapse of a Bose-Einstein Condensate, Physical Review Letters (Accessed May 18, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created April 30, 2001, Updated October 12, 2021