Thermal dephasing and the echo effect in a confined Bose-Einstein condensate

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arXiv:cond-mat/9712287v1 [cond-mat.soft] 24 Dec 1997ThermaldephasingandtheechoeffectinaconfinedBose-EinsteincondensateA.B.Kuklov,andN.ChencinskiDepartmentofAppliedSciences,TheCollegeofStatenIsland,CUNY,StatenIsland,NY10314

Itisshownthatthermalfluctuationsofthenormalcomponentinducedephasing–reversibledamp-ingofthelowenergycollectivemodesofaconfinedBose-Einsteincondensate.Thedephasingrateiscalculatedfortheisotropicoscillatortrap,whereLandaudampingisexpectedtobesuppressed.Thisrateischaracterizedbyasteeptemperaturedependence,anditisweaklyamplitudedependent.Inthelimitoflargenumbersofbosonsformingthecondensate,therateapproacheszero.However,forthenumbersemployedbytheJILAgroup,thecalculatedvalueoftherateisclosetotheexper-imentalone.Wesuggestthatareversiblenatureofthedampingcausedbythethermaldephasingintheisotropictrapcanbetestedbytheechoeffect.AreversiblenatureofLandaudampingisalsodiscussed,andapossibilityofobservingtheechoeffectinananisotropictrapisconsideredaswell.Theparametersoftheechoarecalculatedintheweakecholimitfortheisotropictrap.Resultsofthenumericalsimulationsoftheechoarealsopresented.

PACSnumbers:03.75.Fi,05.30.Jp,32.80.Pj,67.90.+zI.INTRODUCTIONPropertiesofthetrappedultracoldatomicgasesdemonstratingthephenomenonofBose-Einsteinconden-sation[1–3]attractmuchofattention.Aconfinedgeom-etryofthecloudleadstocircumstancesunderwhichnewphenomenasuchas,e.g.,aspecificscalinginthethermo-dynamicalproperties[4]andthetwostepcondensation[5]canbeanticipated.Itwasalsosuggestedthatthephaseoftheconfinedcondensateshoulddemonstratethephenomenonofcollapsesandrevivals[6]andthephasediffusioneffect[7].RecentlyithasbeendiscussedinRefs.[8,9],thatthedynamicalquantumbehavioroftheatomiccloudcon-sistingofafinitenumberofbosonsisverydifferentfromthepropertiesofinfinitesystems.Specifically,anampli-tudeofanormalmodeoftheconfinedcondensateshoulddemonstratequantumdephasingwhichresultsinanap-parentdampingofthemodeevenatzerotemperatureT.Therateofsuchdampingisdeterminedbytheinterpar-ticleinteractionandturnsouttobelinearlydependentonthemodeamplitude,ifitissmall[8,9].Apossibilityofthemoderevivalhasalsobeenpredicted[8,9].Acur-rentexperimentalsituationdoesnotallowtoresolvethiseffectbecauseofthepresenceofthenormalcomponentwhichintroducesasubstantialdampingonitsown.DampingofthenormalmodesatfiniteTofthecon-finedcondensatehasbeenexperimentallystudiedbytheJILA[10]andtheMIT[11]groups.RecentlyitwasstressedbyPitaevskii[12](seealsoinRefs.[13–16])thatthedampinginthetrapcontainingcondensateisessen-tiallyLandaudamping(LD)whichiscollisionlessinna-ture.Inotherwords,itisratherthedephasingofthecollectivemodesthantheirirreversibledissipation[17].ItisworthnotingthatthereversiblenatureoftheLDintheclassicaluniformplasmacanberevealedintheplasmaechoeffect[17].Theoreticalapproaches[13–16]arebasedonapplying

thestandardresultsoftheperturbationtheorydevelopedforaninfiniteanduniformmedium.Accordingly,adis-cretestructureofthequasiparticlespectrumistacitlyreplacedbyaneffectivecontinuum[13–16].Intherecentwork[18]ithasbeenemphasizedthattheexistenceoftheLDisdirectlyrelatedtoapresenceoftherandomnessinthespectrumoftheanisotropictraps.Conversely,intheisotropictraptheLDshouldbesuppressedbecausethequasiparticlespectrumisregular[18].Inthispaper,wesuggestthatinaconfinedcondensatewheretheLDissuppressedthedampingofthecollectivemodescanstillbeobserved.Specifically,thermalfluc-tuationsofthepopulationfactorsofthenormalcompo-nentinduceareversibledephasingofthecollectiveos-cillations.Thenatureofsuchadampingissimilartothatofthedephasingobservedinquantumdots(seeinRef.[19]).Weshowthat,whilebeingessentiallyzeroforatraditionaluniformcondensate,therateofsuchadephasing1/τdinthetrapcontaining103−104atomscanbecomparabletotherateofthedampingobservedexperimentallyinRef.[10].Wealsosuggestthatreversibilityofthedampinginaconfinedcondensatecanbetestedinakindofthephononechoexperiment(seeinRef.[20]),whentwoconsecutiveexternalpulsesimposedonthetrapinduceathirdpulse–theecho–atthetimeapproximatelyequaltotwicethetimeintervalbetweenthefirsttwopulses.Inthispaperweanalyzethecaseoftheisotropictrap,wheretheLDisnotexpectedtobeanimportantmechanismofdissipation.Inafutureworkwewillinvestigatetheechoinstronglyanisotropictraps,wherethemainmechanismofdampingistheLD.

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