Observation of weak collapse in a Bose-Einstein condensate

Observation of weak collapse in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the collapse of an attractive atomic Bose-Einstein condensate prepared in the uniform potential of an optical-box trap. We characterize the critical point for collapse and the collapse dynamics, observing universal behavior in agreement with theoretical expectations. Most importantly, we ob...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Eigen, C, Gaunt, AL, Suleymanzade, A, Navon, N, Hadzibabic, Z, Smith, RP
Format: Journal article
Veröffentlicht: American Physical Society 2016
Schlagworte:
Atomic and Molecular Physics
Interdisciplinary Physics
Nonlinear Dynamics
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:We study the collapse of an attractive atomic Bose-Einstein condensate prepared in the uniform potential of an optical-box trap. We characterize the critical point for collapse and the collapse dynamics, observing universal behavior in agreement with theoretical expectations. Most importantly, we observe a clear experimental signature of the counterintuitive weak collapse, namely, that making the system more unstable can result in a smaller particle loss. We experimentally determine the scaling laws that govern the weak-collapse atom loss, providing a benchmark for the general theories of nonlinear wave phenomena.

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