2001/05/31 by Elizabeth A. Donley, N. R. Claussen, Neil R. Claussen +7 · 16 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/35085500
7 pgs., 6 figs.; Clarified text based on Referee comments, added references
arxiv created 2001/06/01 · openalex publication_date 2001/07/19 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We explored the dynamics of how a Bose-Einstein condensate collapses and subsequently explodes when the balance of forces governing the size and shape of the condensate is suddenly altered. A condensate's equilibrium size and shape is strongly affected by the inter-atomic interactions. Our ability to induce a collapse by switching the interactions from repulsive to attractive by tuning an externally-applied magnetic field yields a wealth of detailed information on the violent collapse process. We observe anisotropic atom bursts that explode from the condensate, atoms leaving the condensate in undetected forms, spikes appearing in the condensate wave function, and oscillating remnant condensates that survive the collapse. These all have curious dependencies on time, the strength of the interaction, and the number of condensate atoms. Although ours would seem to be a simple well-characterized system, our measurements reveal many interesting phenomena that challenge theoretical models.