Variational Wave Function for Inhomogeneous Bose--Einstein Condensate with 3/2-Body Correlations

TL;DR

This paper develops a variational wave function that includes 3/2-body correlations to better describe inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates, showing these correlations significantly lower the ground-state energy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel variational wave function incorporating 3/2-body correlations for inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates, extending beyond mean-field theory.

Findings

3/2-body correlations contribute significantly to energy reduction.

The proposed wave function improves ground-state energy estimates.

Numerical results demonstrate the importance of correlations in trapped condensates.

Abstract

We construct a variational wave function for inhomogeneous weakly interacting Bose--Einstein condensates beyond the mean-field approximation by incorporating $3/2$-body correlations. From our numerical results calculated for a system trapped by a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator, the $3/2$-body correlations give a contribution comparable to the mean- field energy toward lowering the ground-state energy.