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Phys. Rev. A 55, R853–R856 (1997)

Breathing modes and hidden symmetry of trapped atoms in two dimensions

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L. P. Pitaevskii1,2,3 and A. Rosch1
1Institut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Universität Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
2Department of Physics, Technion, 32000 Haifa, Israel
3Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems, 117334 Moscow, Russia

Received 12 September 1996; published in the issue dated February 1997

Atoms confined in a harmonic potential show universal oscillations in two dimensions (2D). We point out the connection of these ``breathing'' modes to the presence of a hidden symmetry. The underlying symmetry SO(2,1), i.e., the two-dimensional Lorentz group, allows pulsating solutions to be constructed for the interacting quantum system and for the corresponding nonlinear Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We point out how this symmetry can be used as a probe for recently proposed experiments of trapped atoms in 2D.

© 1997 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.55.R853
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.55.R853
PACS:
03.75.Fi, 32.80.Pj, 03.65.Fd
 
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