We designed and constructed a simplified experimental system to create a Bose-Einstein condensate in 87 Rb. Our system has several novel features including a mechanical atom transfer mechanism and a hybrid Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap. The apparatus has been designed to consistently produce a stable condensate even when it is not well optimized.

We simulate numerically the photodissociation of molecules into noncondensate atom pairs that accompanies photoassociation of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate into a molecular condensate. Such rogue photodissociation sets a limit on the achievable rate of photoassociation. Given the atom density rho and mass m, the limit is approximately 6(planck)rho(2/3)/m.

We evaluate speculation about the possibility of a dangerous release of energy within the liquid Helium of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cryogenic system due to the occurrence of a " Bose-Nova ". Bose-Novae are radial bursts of rapidly moving atoms which can occur when a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) undergoes a collapse due the interatomic potential being deliberately made attractive using ...

We demonstrate theoretically that, by using external magnetic fields, one can imprint pointlike topological defects on the spin texture of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate. The symmetries of the condensate order parameter render this topological defect to be accompanied with a vortex filament corresponding to the Dirac string of a magnetic monopole. The vorticity in the condensate coincides wi...

In an earlier paper (J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 26 (1993) 4689) we introduced the notion of cycle percolation in the Bose gas and conjectured that it occurs if and only if there is Bose-Einstein condensation. Here we give a complete proof of this statement for the perfect and the imperfect (mean-field) Bose gas and also show that in the condensate there is an infinite number of macroscopic cycles.

Properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate were studied by stimulated, two-photon Bragg scattering. The high momentum and energy resolution of this method allowed a spectroscopic measurement of the mean-field energy and of the intrinsic momentum uncertainty of the condensate. The coherence length of the condensate was shown to be equal to its size. Bragg spectroscopy can be used to determine the ...

We describe several experimental studies of Bose-Einstein condensation in a dilute gas of sodium atoms. These include studies of static and dynamic behavior of the condensate, and of its coherence properties.

We study the properties of elongated Bose-Einstein condensates. First, we show that the dimensions of the condensate after expansion differs from the 3D Thomas-Fermi regime. We also study the coherence length of such elongated condensates.

We have investigated the expansion of a Bose-Einstein condensate of strongly magnetic chromium atoms. The long-range and anisotropic magnetic dipole-dipole interaction leads to an anisotropic deformation of the expanding chromium condensate which depends on the orientation of the atomic dipole moments. Our measurements are consistent with the theory of dipolar quantum gases and show that a chro...

A Bose-Einstein condensate may be used to make precise measurements of weak forces, utilizing the macroscopic occupation of a single quantum state. We present a scheme which uses a condensate in a double well potential to do this. The required initial state of the condensate is discussed, and the limitations on the sensitivity due to atom collisions and external coupling are analyzed. Typeset u...