https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2006-00197-8
Atomic density of a harmonically trapped ideal gas near Bose-Einstein transition temperature
Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique, UMR 8501 du CNRS, 91403 Orsay Cedex, France
Corresponding author: a denis.boiron@iota.u-psud.fr
Received:
19
August
2005
Revised:
20
May
2006
Published online:
1
September
2006
We have studied the atomic density of a cloud confined in an isotropic harmonic trap at the vicinity of the Bose-Einstein transition temperature. We show that, for a non-interacting gas and near this temperature, the ground-state density has the same order of magnitude as the excited states density at the centre of the trap. This holds in a range of temperatures where the ground-state population is negligible compared to the total atom number. We compare the exact calculations, available in a harmonic trap, to semi-classical approximations. We show that these latter should include the ground-state contribution to be accurate.
PACS: 03.75.Hh – Static properties of condensates; thermodynamical, statistical, and structural properties / 03.65.Sq – Semiclassical theories and applications / 05.30.Jp – Boson systems
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2006
