https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050206
Phase dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates: Losses versus revivals
Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (Unité de recherche
de l'École Normale Supérieure et de
l'université Pierre et Marie Curie, associée au CNRS.) ,
24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 5, France
Corresponding author: a alice.sinatra@physique.ens.fr
Received:
23
February
1998
Revised:
21
July
1998
Accepted:
23
July
1998
Published online: 15 December 1998
In the absence of losses the phase of a Bose-Einstein condensate undergoes collapses and revivals in time due to elastic atomic interactions. As experiments necessarily involve inelastic collisions, we develop a model to describe the phase dynamics of the condensates in presence of collisional losses. We find that a few inelastic processes are sufficient to damp the revivals of the phase. For this reason the observability of phase revivals for present experimental conditions is limited to condensates with a few hundreds of atoms.
PACS: 03.75.Fi – Phase coherent atomic ensemble (Bose condensation) / 05.30.Jp – Boson systems
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998
