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Controlled collapse of a Bose-Einstein condensate

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

Authors

J.L. Roberts

N.R. Claussen

S.L. Cornish

E.A. Donley

E.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

Roberts, J., Claussen, N., Cornish, S., Donley, E., Cornell, E., & Wieman, C. (2001). Controlled collapse of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Physical Review Letters, 86(19), 4211-4214. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.86.4211

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date May 7, 2001
Deposit Date Nov 23, 2006
Journal Physical Review Letters
Print ISSN 0031-9007
Electronic ISSN 1079-7114
Publisher American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 86
Issue 19
Pages 4211-4214
DOI https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.86.4211
Keywords Nonlinear Schrodinger-equation, Attractive interactions, Feshbach resonance, Scattering, Stability, Temperature, RB-85, Traps, Atoms, Gas.

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