2005/02/10 by Matt Mackie, Mackie, Matt
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Strong Light-Matter Interactions #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0502269
4 pages, 2 figs., 18+ refs
arxiv created 2005/02/10 · openalex publication_date 2005/02/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recent experiments with Feshbach-resonant cesium Bose-Einstein condensates have led to unexplained molecule formation: a sudden switch of the magnetic field to its resonance value, followed by a finite hold time and another sudden switch to magnetic field values below threshold, converts about a third of the initial condensate atoms into molecules. Based on a model of coherent conversion between an atomic condensate, a molecular condensate, and magnetodissociated noncondensate atom pairs of equal and opposite momentum, we find that population trapping is strongly implicated as the physical mechanism responsible for molecule formation in switch experiments.