Dynamics of Collapsing and Exploding Bose-Einstein Condensates

Published

July 1, 2001

Author(s)

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

Abstract

We have explored the dynamics of how a Bose-Einstein condensate collapses when it is suddenly put into the unstable regime of attractiveinteractions. The ability to change the strength and sign of the inter-atomic interactions by tuning the magnetic field yields a wealth of detailedinformation. Although ours would seem to be a simple well-characterized system, our measurements have revealed many interesting phenomenathat challenge theoretical models. During the collapse we see anisotropic atom bursts that explode from the condensate, atoms leaving thecondensate in undetected forms, spikes appearing in the condensate wavefunction, and remnant condensates surviving the collapse. These allhave curious dependencies on time, strength of the interaction, and the number of condensate atoms.

Citation

Nature

Volume

412

Issue

No. 6844

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

attractive interactions, Bose-Einstein condensate, collapse

Citation

Donley, E. , Claussen, N. , Cornish, S. , Roberts, J. , Cornell, E. and Wieman, C. (2001), Dynamics of Collapsing and Exploding Bose-Einstein Condensates, Nature (Accessed May 7, 2025)