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Phys. Rev. A 61, 051602(R) (2000) [4 pages]

Liquid-gas phase transition in Bose-Einstein condensates with time evolution

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A. Gammal1, T. Frederico2, Lauro Tomio1, and Ph. Chomaz3
1Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidade Estadual Paulista, 01405-900, São Paulo, Brazil
2Departamento de Física, Instituto Tecnológico da Aeronáutica, CTA, 12228-900, São José dos Campos, Brazil
3GANIL, Boîte Postal 5027, F-14021 Caen Cedex, France

Received 30 September 1999; published 30 March 2000

We study the effects of a repulsive three-body interaction on a system of trapped ultracold atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensed state. The stationary solutions of the corresponding s-wave nonlinear Schrödinger equation suggest a scenario of first-order liquid-gas phase transition in the condensed state up to a critical strength of the effective three-body force. The time evolution of the condensate with feeding process and three-body recombination losses has a different characteristic pattern. Also, the decay time of the dense (liquid) phase is longer than expected due to strong oscillations of the mean-squared radius.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.61.051602
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.61.051602
PACS:
03.75.Fi, 05.30.Jp, 34.10.+x, 36.40.Ei