Stimulated enhancement of cross section by a Bose-Einstein condensate

This paper examines the feasibility of constructing an experiment that detects the atomic stimulation of a photon-emission process. A beam of atoms (bosons) in an excited state is passed through an atomic trap that traps the atoms when they are in their internal ground state. When the trap contains a Bose-Einstein condensate, the cross section for absorption of the atomic beam is increased. We examine a particular model in which this atom stimulation is observable and is also characterized by the emission of photons in a narrow cone in the direction of the atomic beam. © 1996 The American Physical Society.