Bose-Einstein Condensation of Atoms in a Trap

Abstract

We point out that the local density approximation (LDA) of Oliva is an adaptation of the Thomas-Fermi method, and is a good approximation when $\varepsilon = \hbarω/kT <<1$. For the case of scattering length $a > 0$, the LDA leads to a quantitative result (14') easily checked by experiments. Critical remarks are made about the physics of the many body problem in terms of the scattering length $a$.

9 pages, latex. one figure, available from authors