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Coherence, Correlations, and Collisions: What One Learns about Bose-Einstein Condensates from Their Decay

E. A. Burt

JILA, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA

National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1070, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1070, USA

Physics Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA

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R. W. Ghrist

JILA, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA

National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1070, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1070, USA

Physics Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA

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C. J. Myatt

JILA, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA

National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1070, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1070, USA

Physics Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA

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M. J. Holland

JILA, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA

National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1070, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1070, USA

Physics Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA

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E. A. Cornell

JILA, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA

National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1070, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1070, USA

Physics Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA

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C. E. Wieman

JILA, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA

National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1070, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1070, USA

Physics Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA

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https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812813787_0068Cited by:0 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract:

We have used three-body recombination rates as a sensitive probe of the statistical correlations between atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) and in ultracold noncondensed dilute atomic gases. We infer that density fluctuations are suppressed in the BEC samples. We measured the three-body recombination rate constants for condensates and cold noncondensates from number loss in the F = 1, m_f = −1 hyperfine state of ⁸⁷Rb. The ratio of these is 7.4(2.6) which agrees with the theoretical factor of 3! and demonstrates that condensate atoms are less bunched than noncondensate atoms. [S0031-9007(97)03611-9]

PACS: 03.75.Fi, 05.30.Jp, 32.80.Pj, 42.50.Dv

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Coherence, Correlations, and Collisions: What One Learns about Bose-Einstein Condensates from Their Decay

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