Trapped attractive atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in three spatial dimensions are known to exist for some finite time only. This is because the gas is prone to self-collapse, due to the attractive nature of the interaction. The 'mainstream' way to describe the state of the condensate is a mean-field (MF) theory, that assumes total condensation of the system. In this talk I will introduce the notion of fragmentation, in contrast to coherence, and show that the states of definite angular momentum of the 3D many-body system cannot be condensed MF states. With this at hand, I examine the impact of the angular momentum to the stability of the attractive gas and show that there is a general stabilizing tendency.
Event Details
Date/Time:
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Date:Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 9:00am
Location:
Howey N110