Density fluctuations in a very elongated Bose gas : from ideal gaz to quasi-condensate
Isabelle Bouchoule
Abstract
We report in situ measurements of density fluctuations in a quasi one dimensional Rubidium Bose gas at thermal equilibrium in an elongated harmonic trap. We observe an excess of fluctuations compared to the shot noise level expected for uncorrelated atoms. At low atomic density, the measured excess is in good agreement with the expected ``bunching'' for an ideal Bose gas. At high density, the measured fluctuations are strongly reduced compared to the ideal gas case. We attribute this reduction to repulsive interatomic interactions. The data are compared with a calculation for an interacting Bose gas in the quasi-condensate regime.