Manipulating transition of a two-component Bose–Einstein condensate with a weak δ-shaped laser

We theoretically study the transition dynamics of a two-component Bose–Einstein condensate driven by a train of weak δ-shaped laser pulses. We find that the atomic system can experience peculiar resonant transition even under weak optical excitations and derive the resonance condition by the perturbation method. Employing this mechanism, we propose a scheme to obtain an atomic ensemble with desired odd/even atom number and also a scheme to prepare a nonclassical state of the many-body system with fixed atom number.     

Expansion dynamics of a spherical Bose–Einstein condensate

We experimentally and theoretically observe the expansion behaviors of a spherical Bose–Einstein condensate. A rubidium condensate is produced in an isotropic optical dipole trap with an asphericity of 0.037. We measure the variation of the condensate size in the expansion process after switching off the trap. The free expansion of the condensate is isotropic,which is different from that of the condensate usually produced in the anisotropic trap. We derive an analytic solution of the expansion behavior based on the spherical symmetry, allowing a quantitative comparison with the experimental measurement. The interaction energy of the condensate is gradually converted into the kinetic energy during the expansion and after a long time the kinetic energy saturates at a constant value. We obtain the interaction energy of the condensate in the trap by probing the long-time expansion velocity, which agrees with the theoretical calculation. This work paves a way to explore novel quantum states of ultracold gases with the spherical symmetry.     

Three-body decay of a rubidium Bose–Einstein condensate

We have measured the three-body decay of a Bose–Einstein condensate of rubidium (⁸⁷Rb) atoms prepared in the doubly polarized ground state F=m _F =2. Our data are taken for a peak atomic density in the condensate varying between 2×10¹⁴ cm^-3 at initial time and 7×10¹³ cm^-3, 16 s later. Taking into account the influence of the uncondensed atoms on the decay of the condensate, we deduce a rate constant for condensed atoms L=1.8 (±0.5) ×10^-29 cm⁶ s^-1. For these densities we did not find a significant contribution of two-body processes such as spin dipole relaxation. Received: 24 November 1998 / Revised version: 26 June 1999 / Published online: 8 September 1999     

Optimized production of a cesium Bose–Einstein condensate

We report on the optimized production of a Bose–Einstein condensate of cesium atoms using an optical trapping approach. Based on an improved trap loading and evaporation scheme we obtain more than 10⁵ atoms in the condensed phase. To test the tunability of the interaction in the condensate we study the expansion of the condensate as a function of scattering length. We further excite strong oscillations of the trapped condensate by rapidly varying the interaction strength. PACS 03.75.Kk; 32.80.Pj     

Levitating soliton of the Bose–Einstein condensate

We have proposed a mechanical model that corresponds to the Newton equation for describing the dynamics of an oscillon, viz., a soliton-like cluster of the Bose–Einstein condensate (with atomic attraction) placed above an oscillating atomic mirror in a uniform gravitational field. The model describes the stochastic Fermi acceleration and periodic, quasi-periodic, and chaotic motion of the oscillon center, as well as hysteresis phenomena in the case of a slow variation of mirror oscillation frequency, which are in good agreement with the results obtained using the Gross–Pitaevskii equation.     

Spatial structure of a Bose–Einstein condensate in a combined trap

We study the spatial structure of a Bose–Einstein condensate(BEC) with a space-dependent s-wave scattering length in a combined trap. There exists a space-dependent nonlinear atomic current in the system. The atomic current has an important influence on the spatial structure of the BEC. Research findings reveal that a large chemical potential can effectively suppress the chaotic spatial structure in the BEC system. Due to the large chemical potential, a strong atomic current is necessary to make...     

Bose–Einstein condensate on a persistent-supercurrent atom chip

A Bose–Einstein condensate was achieved in a stable magnetic trap on a persistent-supercurrent atom chip with a superconducting closed-loop circuit. We determined precisely the shape of the magnetic trapping potential by systematically controlling the persistent supercurrent. The condensation was verified by time-of-flight imaging and by atom number decay measurements. The measured decay rates agreed quantitatively with numerical simulations on the three-body loss process assuming all of the atoms to be a condensate. We also discuss the feasibility of creating a quasi-one-dimensional Bose gas on our atom chip.     

Phase transition of Bose–Einstein condensate under decoherence

The effect of decoherence on the phase transition of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a symmetric double-well potential is determined by the mean atom number difference. It still has two phases, the tunneling phase and the self-trapping phase, even under decoherence. The density matrix and the operator fidelity also show very different behaviors in the two phases. This suggests that operator fidelity can be used to characterize the phase transition of this Bose-Einstein condensate model, even under decoherence.     

The forces on a single interacting Bose–Einstein condensate

Using double parabola approximation for a single Bose–Einstein condensate confined between double slabs we proved that in grand canonical ensemble (GCE) the ground state with Robin boundary condition (BC) is favored, whereas in canonical ensemble (CE) our system undergoes from ground state with Robin BC to the one with Dirichlet BC in small-L region and vice versa for large-L region and phase transition in space of the ground state is the first order. The surface tension force and Casimir force are also considered in both CE and GCE in detail.     

Instability of a two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate with Rashba spin–orbit coupling at finite temperature

We prove that in a two-dimensional homogeneous boson system with Rashba spin–orbit coupling, Bose–Einstein condensate with plane-wave order is unstable at finite temperature. The calculations are based on a nonlinear sigma model scheme. The density wave contributions to the thermal deletions are divergent in the infrared limit. The behavior of the divergence is different from that without spin–orbit coupling.     

Critical number of solitons in the Bose–Einstein condensate

The dynamics of solitons in the Bose–Einstein condensate under the effect of the fluctuation interaction of condensate atoms is studied. A system of equations of motion describing changes in the parameters of the soliton wave function is obtained using the method of the averaged Lagrangian. The minimum critical number of solitons is found, and the influence of the fluctuation interaction on the dynamics of solitons near their critical width is studied.     

Dynamics of spinor Bose–Einstein condensate subject to dissipation

We investigate the internal dynamics of the spinor Bose–Einstein condensates subject to dissipation by solving the Lindblad master equation. It is shown that for the condensates without dissipation its dynamics always evolve along a specific orbital in the phase space of(n_0, θ) and display three kinds of dynamical properties including Josephson-like oscillation, self-trapping-like oscillation, and ‘running phase'. In contrast, the condensates subject to dissipation will not evolve along the specific dynamical orbital. If component-1 and component-(-1) dissipate at different rates, the magnetization m will not conserve and the system transits between different dynamical regions. The dynamical properties can be exhibited in the phase space of(n_0, θ, m).     

Dynamics of nonautonomous rogue waves in Bose–Einstein condensate

We study rogue waves of Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) analytically in a time-dependent harmonic trap with a complex potential. Properties of the nonautonomous rogue waves are investigated analytically. It is reported that there are possibilities to ‘catch’ rogue waves through manipulating nonlinear interaction properly. The results provide many possibilities to manipulate rogue waves experimentally in a BEC system.     

Equilibrium vortex lattices of a binary rotating atomic Bose–Einstein condensate with unequal atomic masses

We perform a detailed numerical study of the equilibrium ground-state structures of a binary rotating Bose–Einstein condensate with unequal atomic masses. Our results show that the ground-state distribution and its related vortex configurations are complex events that differ markedly depending strongly on the strength of rotation frequency, as well as on the ratio of atomic masses. We also discuss the structures and radii of the clouds, the number and the size of the core region of the vortices, as a function of the rotation frequency, and of the ratio of atomic masses, and the analytical results agree well with our numerical simulations. This work may open an alternate way in the quantum control of the binary rotating quantum gases with unequal atomic masses.     

Dynamics of straight vortex filaments in a Bose–Einstein condensate with the Gaussian density profile

The dynamics of interacting quantized vortex filaments in a rotating Bose–Einstein condensate existing in the Thomas–Fermi regime at zero temperature and obeying the Gross–Pitaevskii equation has been considered in the hydrodynamic “nonelastic” approximation. A noncanonical Hamilton equation of motion for the macroscopically averaged vorticity has been derived for a smoothly inhomogeneous array of filaments (vortex lattice) taking into account spatial nonuniformity of the equilibrium density of the condensate, which is determined by the trap potential. The minimum of the corresponding Hamiltonian describes the static configuration of the deformed vortex lattice against the preset density background. The condition of minimum can be reduced to a nonlinear second-order partial differential vector equation for which some exact and approximate solutions are obtained. It has been shown that if the condensate density has an anisotropic Gaussian profile, the equation of motion for the averaged vorticity has solutions in the form of a vector exhibiting a nontrivial time dependence, but homogeneous in space. An integral representation has also been obtained for the matrix Green function that determines the nonlocal Hamiltonian of a system of several quantized vortices of an arbitrary shape in a Bose–Einstein condensate with the Gaussian density. In particular, if all filaments are straight and oriented along one of the principal axes of the ellipsoid, we have a finitedimensional reduction that can describe the dynamics of the system of pointlike vortices against an inhomogeneous background. A simple approximate expression is proposed for the 2D Green function with an arbitrary density profile and is compared numerically with the exact result in the Gaussian case. The corresponding approximate equations of motion, describing the long-wavelength dynamics of interacting vortex filaments in condensates with a density depending only on transverse coordinates, have been derived.