The moment of inertia and the scissors mode of a Bose-condensed gas

We relate the frequency of the scissors mode to the moment of inertia of a trapped Bose gas at finite temperature in a semi-classical approximation. We apply these theoretical results to the data obtained in our previous study of the properties of the scissors mode of a trapped Bose-Einstein condens...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marago, O, Hechenblaikner, G, Hodby, E, Hopkins, SA, Foot, C
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2002
Description
Summary:We relate the frequency of the scissors mode to the moment of inertia of a trapped Bose gas at finite temperature in a semi-classical approximation. We apply these theoretical results to the data obtained in our previous study of the properties of the scissors mode of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms as a function of the temperature. The frequency shifts that we measured show quenching of the moment of inertia of the Bose gas at temperatures below the transition temperature - the system has a lower moment of inertia than that of a rigid body with the same mass distribution, because of superfluidity.