The relative importance of density and phase fluctuations in ultracold one-dimensional atomic Bose gases is investigated. By defining appropriate characteristic temperatures for their respective onset, a broad experimental regime is found, where density fluctuations set in at a lower temperature than phase fluctuations. This is in stark contrast to the usual experimental regime explored up to now, in which phase fluctuations are largely decoupled from density fluctuations, a regime also recovered in this work as a limiting case. Observation of the regime of dominant density fluctuations is shown to be well within current experimental capabilities for both
23Na and
87Rb, requiring relatively low temperatures, small atom numbers, and moderate aspect ratios.
The relative importance of density and phase fluctuations in ultracold one-dimensional atomic Bose gases is investigated. By defining appropriate characteristic temperatures for their respective onset, a broad experimental regime is found, where density fluctuations set in at a lower temperature than phase fluctuations. This is in stark contrast to the usual experimental regime explored up to now, in which phase fluctuations are largely decoupled from density fluctuations, a regime also recovered in this work as a limiting case. Observation of the regime of dominant density fluctuations is shown to be well within current experimental capabilities for both 23Na and 87Rb, requiring relatively low temperatures, small atom numbers, and moderate aspect ratios.