Density fluctuations in a very elongated Bose gas : transition towards quasi-bec and 1D-3D crossover
Isabelle Bouchoule, Julien Armijo, T. Jacqmin, Karen V. Kheruntsyan
Abstract
By measuring the density fluctuations in a highly elongated weakly interacting Bose gas, we observe and quantify the transition from the ideal gas to a quasi-condensate regime throughout the dimensional crossover from a purely 1D to an almost 3D gas. We show that that the entire transition region and the dimensional crossover are described surprisingly well by the modified Yang-Yang model. Furthermore, we find that at low temperatures the linear density at the quasi-condensate transition scales according to an interaction-driven scenario of a longitudinally uniform 1D Bose gas, whereas at high temperatures it scales according to the degeneracy-driven critical scenario of transverse condensation of a 3D ideal gas. We also perform measurements of the third moment of atom number fluctuations. We find a positive skewness of the atom number distribution in the ideal gas regime and a reduced skewness compatible with zero in the quasi-condensate regime. For our parameters, the third moment is a thermodynamic quantity whose measurement constitutes a sensitive test of the equation of state and our results are in agreement with a modified Yang-Yang thermodynamic prediction. Moreover, we show that the measured skewness reveals the presence of true three body correlations in the system.