Capillary instability in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates capillary instability in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate, analyzing the conditions for droplet formation due to interfacial tension, and proposes an experimental setup to observe this phenomenon.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of capillary instability in two-component BECs and suggests an experimental realization with heteronuclear systems.

Findings

Dynamical instability of cylindrical condensates against breakup into droplets.

Interfacial tension from quantum pressure and interactions causes instability.

Proposal for experimental observation in heteronuclear BEC systems.

Abstract

Capillary instability and the resulting dynamics in an immiscible two-component Bose-Einstein condensate are investigated using the mean-field and Bogoliubov analyses. A long, cylindrical condensate surrounded by the other component is dynamically unstable against breakup into droplets due to the interfacial tension arising from the quantum pressure and interactions. A heteronuclear system confined in a cigar-shaped trap is proposed for realizing this phenomenon experimentally.