Bistability and macroscopic quantum coherence in a BEC of ^7Li

We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of $^7Li$ in a situation where the density undergoes a symmetry breaking in real space. This occurs for a suitable number of condensed atoms in a double well potential, obtained by adding a standing wave light field to the trap potential. Evidence of bistability results from the solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. By second quantization, we show that the classical bistable situation is in fact a Schr\"odinger cat (SC) and evaluate the tunneling rate between the two SC states. The oscillation between the two states is called MQC (macroscopic quantum coherence); we study the effects of losses on MQC.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures. e-mail: [email protected]

Multi frequency evaporative cooling to BEC in a high magnetic field

We demonstrate a way to circumvent the interruption of evaporative cooling observed at high bias field for $^{87}$Rb atoms trapped in the (F=2, m=+2) ground state. Our scheme uses a 3-frequencies-RF-knife achieved by mixing two RF frequencies. This compensates part of the non linearity of the Zeeman effect, allowing us to achieve BEC where standard 1-frequency-RF-knife evaporation method did not work. We are able to get efficient evaporative cooling, provided that the residual detuning between the transition and the RF frequencies in our scheme is smaller than the power broadening of the RF transitions at the end of the evaporation ramp.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Effect of anharmonicities in the critical number of trapped condensed atoms with attractive two-body interaction

We determine the quantitative effect, in the maximum number of particles and other static observables, due to small anharmonic terms added to the confining potential of an atomic condensed system with negative two-body interaction. As an example of how a cubic or quartic anharmonic term can affect the maximum number of particles, we consider the trap parameters and the results given by Roberts et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4211 (2001)]. However, this study can be easily transferred to other trap geometries to estimate anharmonic effects.Comment: Total of 5 pages, 3 figures and 1 table. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Continuous Observation of Interference Fringes from Bose Condensates

We use continuous measurement theory to describe the evolution of two Bose condensates in an interference experiment. It is shown how the system evolves in a single run of the experiment into a state with a fixed relative phase, while the total gauge symmetry remains unbroken. Thus, an interference pattern is exhibited without violating atom number conservation.Comment: 4 pages, Postscrip

Frequency down conversion through Bose condensation of light

We propose an experimental set up allowing to convert an input light of wavelengths about $1-2 \mu m$ into an output light of a lower frequency. The basic principle of operating relies on the nonlinear optical properties exhibited by a microcavity filled with glass. The light inside this material behaves like a 2D interacting Bose gas susceptible to thermalise and create a quasi-condensate. Extension of this setup to a photonic bandgap material (fiber grating) allows the light to behave like a 3D Bose gas leading, after thermalisation, to the formation of a Bose condensate. Theoretical estimations show that a conversion of $1 \mu m$ into $1.5 \mu m$ is achieved with an input pulse of about $1 ns$ with a peak power of $10^3 W$, using a fiber grating containing an integrated cavity of size about $500 \mu m \times 100 \mu m^2$.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

Condensate fluctuations of a trapped, ideal Bose gas

For a non-self-interacting Bose gas with a fixed, large number of particles confined to a trap, as the ground state occupation becomes macroscopic, the condensate number fluctuations remain micrscopic. However, this is the only significant aspect in which the grand canonical description differs from canonical or microcanonical in the thermodynamic limit. General arguments and estimates including some vanishingly small quantities are compared to explicit, fixed-number calculations for 10^2 to 10^6 particles.Comment: 16 pages (REVTeX) plus 4 figures (ps), revision includes brief comparison of repulsive-interaction vs. fixed-N fluctuation damping. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Bose-Einstein condensation with magnetic dipole-dipole forces

Ground-state solutions in a dilute gas interacting via contact and magnetic dipole-dipole forces are investigated. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first example of studies of the Bose-Einstein condensation in a system with realistic long-range interactions. We find that for the magnetic moment of e.g. chromium and a typical value of the scattering length all solutions are stable and only differ in size from condensates without long-range interactions. By lowering the value of the scattering length we find a region of unstable solutions. In the neighborhood of this region the ground state wavefunctions show internal structures not seen before in condensates. Finally, we find an analytic estimate for the characteristic length appearing in these solutions.Comment: final version, 4 pages, 4 figure

Loading a vapor cell magneto-optic trap using light-induced atom desorption

Low intensity white light was used to increase the loading rate of $^{87}$Rb atoms into a vapor cell magneto-optic trap by inducing non-thermal desorption of Rb atoms from the stainless steel walls of the vapor cell. An increased Rb partial pressure reached a new equilibrium value in less than 10 seconds after switching on the broadband light source. After the source was turned off, the partial pressure returned to its previous value in $1/e$ times as short as 10 seconds.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Evaporative cooling of trapped fermionic atoms

We propose an efficient mechanism for the evaporative cooling of trapped fermions directly into quantum degeneracy. Our idea is based on an electric field induced elastic interaction between trapped atoms in spin symmetric states. We discuss some novel general features of fermionic evaporative cooling and present numerical studies demonstrating the feasibility for the cooling of alkali metal fermionic species $^6$Li, $^{40}$K, and $^{82,84,86}$Rb. We also discuss the sympathetic cooling of fermionic hyperfine spin mixtures, including the effects of anisotropic interactions.Comment: to be publishe

A Closed Class of Hydrodynamical Solutions for the Collective Excitations of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

A trajectory approach is taken to the hydrodynamical treatment of collective excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a harmonic trap. The excitations induced by linear deformations of the trap are shown to constitute a broad class of solutions that can be fully described by a simple nonlinear matrix equation. An exact closed-form expression is obtained for the solution describing the mode {n=0, m=2} in a cylindrically symmetric trap, and the calculated amplitude-dependent frequency shift shows good agreement with the experimental results of the JILA group.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 1 eps figure, identical to the published versio