In the Thomas–Fermi (TF) regime, S. Stringari [Phys. Rev. Lett., 77, 2360 (1996)] established the hydrodynamic normal modes of an interacting dilute Bose-condensed fluid confined in an isotropic harmonic trap. Here, we extend this treatment beyond the TF condensate using the work of B. Hu, G. Huang and Y. Ma [Phys. Rev. A, 69, 063608 (2004)] as a starting point. Both numerical results for low-lying eigenfrequencies, for various angular momentum quantum numbers ℓ and n = 0, and also samples of corresponding eigenfunctions, are presented. Finally, eigenfrequencies are also given for some collective excitations in an axially symmetrical trap.
We have measured the effect of dipole-dipole interactions on the frequency of a collective mode of a Bose-Einstein condensate. At relatively large numbers of atoms, the experimental measurements are in good agreement with zero temperature theoretical predictions based on the Thomas-Fermi approach. Experimental results obtained for the dipolar shift of a collective mode show a larger dependency to both the trap geometry and the atom number than the ones obtained when measuring the modification of the condensate aspect ratio due to dipolar forces. These findings are in good agreement with simulations based on a Gaussian ansatz.
The frequencies of the collective oscillations of a harmonically trapped Fermi gas interacting with large scattering lengths are calculated at zero temperature using hydrodynamic theory. Different regimes are considered, including the molecular Bose-Einstein condensate and the unitarity limit for collisions. We show that the frequency of the radial compressional mode in an elongated trap exhibits a pronounced non-monotonous dependence on the scattering length, reflecting the role of the interactions in the equation of state.
The density of states of a Bose-condensed gas confined in a harmonic trap is investigated. The predictions of Bogoliubov theory are compared with those of Hartree-Fock theory and of the hydrodynamic model. We show that the Hartree-Fock scheme provides an excellent description of the excitation spectrum in a wide range of energy, revealing a major role played by single-particle excitations in these confined systems. The crossover from the hydrodynamic regime, holding at low energies, to the independent-particle regime is explicitly explored by studying the frequency of the surface mode as a function of their angular momentum. The applicability of the semiclassical approximation for the excited states is also discussed. We show that the semiclassical approach provides simple and accurate formulas for the density of states and the quantum depletion of the condensate.
We report results for the Thomas-Fermi ground state of a spin-polarized dipolar interacting Bose-Einstein condensate for the case when the external magnetic field
B is not orientated parallel to a principal axis but is aligned parallel to a symmetry plane of a harmonic anisotropic trap. For a dipole interaction strength parameter ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{D}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ the release energy of the condensate depends on the trap orientation angle ${\ensuremath{\vartheta}}_{T}$ between the principal axis
ez,T of the trap and the field
B. From the quasiclassical Josephson equation of macroscopic quantum physics we determine the low-lying eigenfrequencies of small-amplitude collective modes of the condensate density for various trap frequencies ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}$ and trap orientation angles ${\ensuremath{\vartheta}}_{T}$. For the special case of a spherical harmonic trap with trap frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$ it is rigorously shown for $\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{2}<{\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{D}<1$ that a pure
s-wave symmetry breather excitation of the condensate density exists, that oscillates at a constant frequency ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{s}=\sqrt{5}\ensuremath{\omega}$ around the ground-state cloud, despite the well-known fact that the shape of the ground-state cloud of a spin-polarized dipolar condensate is for ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{D}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ not isotropic. For ${\ensuremath{\vartheta}}_{T}\ensuremath{\ne}0$ the small-amplitude modes of the particle density with isotropic and quadrupolar symmetry consist of two groups. There exist four modes that are combinations of basis functions, with
s-wave, ${d}_{{x}^{2}\ensuremath{-}{y}^{2}}$- and
dz2-wave, and
dxz-wave symmetry, and two modes that are combinations of basis functions with
dyz- and
dxy-wave symmetry. A characteristic difference in the dependence of the frequencies of these six collective modes on the dipole interaction strength parameter ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{D}$ for prolate and oblate harmonic triaxial traps, respectively, is suggested to be used as an experimental method to measure the
s-wave scattering length
as of the atoms.
We present a general method for obtaining the exact static solutions and collective excitation frequencies of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with dipolar atomic interactions in the Thomas-Fermi regime. The method incorporates analytic expressions for the dipolar potential of an arbitrary polynomial density profile, thereby reducing the problem of handling nonlocal dipolar interactions to the solution of algebraic equations. We comprehensively map out the static solutions and excitation modes, including non-cylindrically-symmetric traps, and also the case of negative scattering length where dipolar interactions stabilize an otherwise unstable condensate. The dynamical stability of the excitation modes gives insight into the onset of collapse of a dipolar BEC. We find that global collapse is consistently mediated by an anisotropic quadrupolar collective mode, although there are two trapping regimes in which the BEC is stable against quadrupole fluctuations even as the ratio of the dipolar to
s-wave interactions becomes infinite. Motivated by the possibility of a fragmented condensate in a dipolar Bose gas due to the partially attractive interactions, we pay special attention to the scissors modes, which can provide a signature of superfluidity, and identify a long-range restoring force which is peculiar to dipolar systems. As part of the supporting material for this paper we provide the computer program used to make the calculations, including a graphical user interface.