# Shell potentials for microgravity Bose-Einstein condensates

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to create shell-geometry Bose-Einstein condensates in microgravity environments, enabling exploration of new quantum phenomena inaccessible on Earth due to gravity's effects.

## Contribution

It introduces a realistic experimental framework for generating shell-shaped BECs using radiofrequency dressing in microgravity conditions, leveraging NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory.

## Key findings

- Feasibility of creating shell-geometry BECs in microgravity.
- Identification of experimental challenges and inhomogeneities.
- Potential for new quantum phenomena exploration.

## Abstract

Extending the understanding of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) physics to new geometries and topologies has a long and varied history in ultracold atomic physics. One such new geometry is that of a bubble, where a condensate would be confined to the surface of an ellipsoidal shell. Study of this geometry would give insight into new collective modes, self-interference effects, topology-dependent vortex behavior, dimensionality crossovers from thick to thin shells, and the properties of condensates pushed into the ultradilute limit. Here we discuss a proposal to implement a realistic experimental framework for generating shell-geometry BEC using radiofrequency dressing of magnetically-trapped samples. Such a tantalizing state of matter is inaccessible terrestrially due to the distorting effect of gravity on experimentally-feasible shell potentials. The debut of an orbital BEC machine (NASA Cold Atom Laboratory, aboard the International Space Station) has enabled the operation of quantum-gas experiments in a regime of perpetual freefall, and thus has permitted the planning of microgravity shell-geometry BEC experiments. We discuss specific experimental configurations, applicable inhomogeneities and other experimental challenges, and outline potential experiments.