arXiv:cond-mat/0101395 · Physical Review A
Bose-Einstein condensates in the large-gas-parameter regime
Adelchi Fabrocini, A. Polls
Abstract
Bose-Einstein condensates of ${10}^{4}{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms in a cylindrical trap are studied using a recently proposed approach based on a local-density approximation. Since the existence of a Feshbach resonance allows for widely tuning the scattering length of the atoms, values of the peak gas parameter ${x}_{\mathrm{pk}}$ of the order of ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ may be attained and the standard analysis based on Gross-Pitaevskii and/or Thomas-Fermi equations may result in being questionable. Energy functionals derived from the correlated basis functions theory and the low-density expansion for a homogeneous hard-spheres gas are used to estimate corrections to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The two functionals give similar results, both showing large differences with respect to the Thomas-Fermi and Gross-Pitaevskii ones. The column densities at $z=0$ may differ by as much as $\ensuremath{\sim}30%$ and the half maximum radius by $\ensuremath{\sim}20%.$ The scattering lengths estimated by fitting the half maximum radius may differ by $\ensuremath{\sim}40%$ from those given by a Thomas-Fermi-based analysis of the experimental data.