Eur. Phys. J. D 40, 399-403 (2006)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2006-00177-0

Momentum interferences of a freely expanding Bose-Einstein condensate due to interatomic interaction change

¹ Institut für Mathematische Physik, TU Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstrasse 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
² Departamento de Química-Física, Universidad del País Vasco, Apdo. 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain

Corresponding authors: ^a a.ruschhaupt@tu-bs.de - ^b qfbdeeca@ehu.es - ^c jg.muga@ehu.es

Received: 31 March 2006
Revised: 22 May 2006
Published online: 28 July 2006

Abstract

A Bose-Einstein condensate may be prepared in a harmonic trap with negligible interatomic interactions using a Feshbach resonance. If a strong repulsive interatomic interaction is switched on and the trap is removed to let the condensate evolve freely, a time dependent quantum interference pattern takes place in the short time (Thomas-Fermi) regime, in which the number of peaks of the momentum distribution increases one by one, whereas the spatial density barely changes. The effect is stable for initial states with interactions and realistic time-dependence of the scattering length.