arXiv:1104.0890 · Physical Review Letters
Effects of Interactions on the Critical Temperature of a Trapped Bose Gas
Robert P. Smith, Robert L. D. Campbell, Naaman Tammuz, Zoran Hadzibabic
Abstract
We perform high-precision measurements of the condensation temperature of a harmonically trapped atomic Bose gas with widely tunable interactions. For weak interactions we observe a negative shift of the critical temperature in excellent agreement with mean-field theory. However for sufficiently strong interactions we clearly observe an additional positive shift, characteristic of beyond-mean-field critical correlations. We also discuss nonequilibrium effects on the apparent critical temperature for both very weak and very strong interactions.