Higher-order mutual coherence of optical and matter waves

We use an operational approach to discuss ways to measure the higher-order cross-correlations between optical and matter-wave fields. We pay particular attention to the fact that atomic fields actually consist of composite particles that can easily be separated into their basic constituents by a detection process such as photoionization. In the case of bosonic fields, that we specifically consider here, this leads to the appearance in the detection signal of exchange contributions due to both the composite bosonic field and its individual fermionic constituents. We also show how time-gated counting schemes allow to isolate specific contributions to the signal, in particular involving different orderings of the Schr\"odinger and Maxwell fields.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Dynamics of evaporative cooling in magnetically trapped atomic hydrogen

We study the evaporative cooling of magnetically trapped atomic hydrogen on the basis of the kinetic theory of a Bose gas. The dynamics of trapped atoms is described by the coupled differential equations, considering both the evaporation and dipolar spin relaxation processes. The numerical time-evolution calculations quantitatively agree with the recent experiment of Bose-Einstein condensation with atomic hydrogen. It is demonstrated that the balance between evaporative cooling and heating due to dipolar relaxation limits the number of condensates to 9x10^8 and the corresponding condensate fraction to a small value of 4% as observed experimentally.Comment: 5 pages, REVTeX, 3 eps figures, Phys. Rev. A in pres

New Quantum Theory of Laser Cooling Mechanisms

In this paper, we study the laser cooling mechanisms with a new quantum theory approach by applying a new Schrodinger equation, which can describe a particle in conservative and non-conservative force field. With the new theory, we prove the atom in laser field can be cooled, and give the atom cooling temperature, which is accordance with experiment result. Otherwise, we give new prediction that the atom cooling temperature is directly proportional to the atom vibration frequency. By calculation, we find they are: $T=0.4334\omega$.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:physics/0601097, arXiv:0710.5078, arXiv:0707.2280 by other authors without attributio

Mean-field description of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates

We perform numerical simulation based on the time-dependent mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation to understand some aspects of a recent experiment by Donley et al. on the dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates of $^{85}$Rb atoms. They manipulated the atomic interaction by an external magnetic field via a Feshbach resonance, thus changing the repulsive condensate into an attractive one and vice versa. In the actual experiment they changed suddenly the scattering length of atomic interaction from positive to a large negative value on a pre-formed condensate in an axially symmetric trap. Consequently, the condensate collapses and ejects atoms via explosion. We find that the present mean-field analysis can explain some aspects of the dynamics of the collapsing and exploding Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 9 Latex pages, 10 ps and eps files, version accepted in Physical Review A, minor changes mad

Bose-Einstein condensates in atomic gases: simple theoretical results

These notes present simple theoretical approaches to study Bose-Einstein condensation in trapped atomic gases and their comparison to recent experimental results : - the ideal Bose gas model - Fermi pseudopotential to model the atomic interaction potential - finite temperature Hartree-Fock approximation - Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the condensate wavefunction - what we learn from a linearization of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation - Bogoliubov approach and thermodynamical stability - phase coherence properties of Bose-Einstein condensates - symmetry breaking description of condensatesComment: 146 pages, 17 figures, Lecture Notes of Les Houches Summer School 199