Phase Dynamics of Bose-Einstein Condensates: Losses versus Revivals
arXiv:physics/9802040 · doi:10.1007/s100530050206
Abstract
In the absence of losses the phase of a Bose-Einstein condensate undergoes collapses and revivals in time due to elastic atomic interactions. As experiments necessarily involve inelastic collisions, we develop a model to describe the phase dynamics of the condensates in presence of collisional losses. We find that a few inelastic processes are sufficient to damp the revivals of the phase. For this reason the observability of phase revivals for present experimental conditions is limited to condensates with a few hundreds of atoms.
24 pages, 9 figures. submitted to European Journal of Physics D