Direct observation of growth and collapse of a Bose–Einstein condensate with attractive interactions

Gerton, Jordan M.; Strekalov, Dmitry; Prodan, Ionut D.; Hulet, Randall G.

doi:10.1038/35047030

Cited by 279 publications

(288 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Nevertheless, "collapselike" (or quasi-collapse) dynamics can still occur in real physical systems when nonlinearity leads to strong energy localisation. In fact, recent experiments with ultra cold gases provided clear signatures of the collapse-like dynamics of atomic condensates [37,39].…”

Section: Beam Collapsementioning

confidence: 99%

Modulational instability, solitons and beam propagation in spatially nonlocal nonlinear media

Królikowski

Bang

Nikolov

et al. 2004

J. Opt. B: Quantum Semiclass. Opt.

401

322

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Section: Beam Collapsementioning

confidence: 99%

Modulational instability, solitons and beam propagation in spatially nonlocal nonlinear media

Królikowski

Bang

Nikolov

et al. 2004

J. Opt. B: Quantum Semiclass. Opt.

401

322

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“…We have observed many features of the surprisingly complex collapse process, including the energies and energy anisotropies of atoms that burst from the condensate, the time scale for the onset of this burst, the rates for losing atoms, spikes in the wave function that form during collapse, and the size of the remnant BEC that survives the collapse. The unprecedented level of control provided by tuning a has allowed us to see how all of these quantities depend on the magnitude of a, the initial number and density of condensate atoms, and the initial spatial size and shape of the BEC before the transition to instability.A great deal of theoretical interest 12,13,14,15,16,17 was generated by BEC experiments in 7 Li 18 , for which the scattering length is also negative and collapse events are also observed 19,20 . The 7 Li experiments do not employ a Feshbach resonance, so a is fixed.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A great deal of theoretical interest 12,13,14,15,16,17 was generated by BEC experiments in 7 Li 18 , for which the scattering length is also negative and collapse events are also observed 19,20 . The 7 Li experiments do not employ a Feshbach resonance, so a is fixed.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose–Einstein condensates

Donley

Claussen

Cornish

et al. 2001

Nature

751

909

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We explored the dynamics of how a Bose-Einstein condensate collapses and subsequently explodes when the balance of forces governing the size and shape of the condensate is suddenly altered. A condensate's equilibrium size and shape is strongly affected by the inter-atomic interactions. Our ability to induce a collapse by switching the interactions from repulsive to attractive by tuning an externally-applied magnetic field yields a wealth of detailed information on the violent collapse process. We observe anisotropic atom bursts that explode from the condensate, atoms leaving the condensate in undetected forms, spikes appearing in the condensate wave function, and oscillating remnant condensates that survive the collapse. These all have curious dependencies on time, the strength of the interaction, and the number of condensate atoms. Although ours would seem to be a simple well-characterized system, our measurements reveal many interesting phenomena that challenge theoretical models.Although the density of the atoms in an atomic BoseEinstein condensate (BEC) is typically five orders of magnitude lower than the density of air, the inter-atomic interactions greatly affect a wide variety of BEC properties. These include static properties like the BEC size and shape and the condensate stability, and dynamic properties like the collective excitation spectrum and soliton and vortex behavior. Since all of these properties are sensitive to the inter-atomic interactions, they can be quite dramatically affected by tuning the interaction strength and sign.The vast majority of BEC physics is well described by mean-field theory 1 , in which the strength of the interactions depends on the atom density and on one additional parameter called the s-wave scattering length a. a is determined by the atomic species. When a > 0, the interactions are repulsive. In contrast, when a < 0 the interactions are attractive and a BEC tends to contract to minimize its overall energy. In a harmonic trap, the contraction competes with the kinetic zero-point energy, which tends to spread out the condensate. For a strong enough attractive interaction, there is not enough kinetic energy to stabilize the BEC and it is expected to implode. A BEC can avoid implosion only as long as the number of atoms N 0 is less than a critical value given by 2where dimensionless constant k is called the stability coefficient. The precise value of k depends on the aspect ratio of the magnetic trap 3 . a ho is the harmonic oscillator length, which sets the size of the condensate in the ideal-gas (a = 0) limit. Under most circumstances, a is insensitive to external fields. This is different in the vicinity of a so-called Feshbach resonance, where a can be tuned over a huge range by adjusting the externally applied magnetic field 4,5 . This has been demonstrated in recent years with cold 85 Rb and Cs atoms 6,7,8 , and with Na and 85 Rb BoseEinstein condensates 9,10 . For 85 Rb atoms, a is usually negative, but a Feshbach resonance at ∼155 G allows us to tune a by orders ...

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“…Importantly, the presence of trapping can support metastable, non-collapsing states, although these existence of the metastable state depends on the atom number, interaction strength and shape and strength of the trapping potential. The collapse instability has been investigated experimentally [15,[26][27][28]. Numerous theoretical studies have focused on identifying the parameters associated with the onset of collapse in condensates of various geometries, using variational [43,44,61,62,64], perturbative [24], and numerical [16,17,23,43,61,62,66] methods.…”

Section: Collapse and The Critical Parametermentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking, Self-Trapping, and Josephson Oscillations

Malomed¹

2013

Progress in Optical Science and Photonics

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In recent years, bright soliton-like structures composed of gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates have been generated at ultracold temperature. The experimental capacity to precisely engineer the nonlinearity and potential landscape experienced by these solitary waves offers an attractive platform for fundamental study of solitonic structures. The presence of three spatial dimensions and trapping implies that these are strictly distinct objects to the true soliton solutions. Working within the zero-temperature mean-field description, we explore the solutions and stability of bright solitary waves, as well as their interactions. Emphasis is placed on elucidating their similarities and differences to the true bright soliton. The rich behaviour introduced in the bright solitary waves includes the collapse instability and symmetry-breaking collisions. We review the experimental formation and observation of bright solitary matter waves to date, and compare to theoretical predictions. Finally we discuss the current state-of-the-art of this area, including beyond-mean-field descriptions, exotic bright solitary waves, and proposals to exploit bright solitary waves in interferometry and as surface probes.

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Direct observation of growth and collapse of a Bose–Einstein condensate with attractive interactions

Cited by 279 publications

References 18 publications

Modulational instability, solitons and beam propagation in spatially nonlocal nonlinear media

Modulational instability, solitons and beam propagation in spatially nonlocal nonlinear media

Dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose–Einstein condensates

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking, Self-Trapping, and Josephson Oscillations

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