Excess noise depletion of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical cavity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum fluctuations in an optical cavity can cause significant depletion of a Bose-Einstein condensate over time, due to an excess noise mechanism similar to laser physics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of excess noise depletion in BECs within optical cavities, highlighting a novel quantum fluctuation amplification mechanism.

Findings

Quantum fluctuations can be strongly amplified in BEC-cavity systems.

Excess noise leads to significant depletion of the condensate over long times.

The effect is analogous to Petermann excess noise in laser physics.

Abstract

Quantum fluctuations of a cavity field coupled into the motion of ultracold bosons can be strongly amplified by a mechanism analogous to the Petermann excess noise factor in lasers with unstable cavities. For a Bose-Einstein condensate in a stable optical resonator, the excess noise effect amounts to a significant depletion on long timescales.