WHEN IS A QUANTUM GAS A QUANTUM LIQUID?
We report on measurements of the excitation spectrum of a strongly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). A magnetic-field Feshbach resonance is used to tune atom-atom interactions in the condensate and to reach a regime where quantum depletion and beyond mean-field corrections to the condensate chemical potential are significant. We use two-photon Bragg spectroscopy to probe the condensate excitation spectrum; our results demonstrate the onset of beyond mean-field effects in a gaseous BEC.