Extension of the Thomas-Fermi approximation for trapped Bose-Einstein condensates with an arbitrary number of atoms

By incorporating the zero-point energy contribution we derive simple and accurate extensions of the usual Thomas-Fermi (TF) expressions for the ground-state properties of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates that remain valid for an arbitrary number of atoms in the mean-field regime. Specifically, we obtain approximate analytical expressions for the ground-state properties of spherical, cigar-shaped, and disk-shaped condensates that reduce to the correct analytical formulas in both the TF and the perturbative regimes, and remain valid and accurate in between these two limiting cases. Mean-field quasi-1D and -2D condensates appear as simple particular cases of our formulation. The validity of our results is corroborated by an independent numerical computation based on the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Final version published in Phys. Rev.

Three-dimensional gap solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates supported by one-dimensional optical lattices

We study fundamental and compound gap solitons (GSs) of matter waves in one-dimensional (1D) optical lattices (OLs) in a three-dimensional (3D) weak-radial-confinement regime, which corresponds to realistic experimental conditions in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). In this regime GSs exhibit nontrivial radial structures. Associated with each 3D linear spectral band exists a family of fundamental gap solitons that share a similar transverse structure with the Bloch waves of the corresponding linear band. GSs with embedded vorticity $m$ may exist \emph{inside} bands corresponding to other values of $m$. Stable GSs, both fundamental and compound ones (including vortex solitons), are those which originate from the bands with lowest axial and radial quantum numbers. These findings suggest a scenario for the experimental generation of robust GSs in 3D settings.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; v2: matches published versio