BEC Collapse, Particle Production and Squeezing of the Vacuum

TL;DR

This paper explains Bose-Einstein condensate collapse phenomena as quantum fluctuation squeezing and amplification, providing a simple physical model that quantitatively matches experimental observations of collapse timing and emitted particles.

Contribution

It introduces a physical picture linking condensate dynamics to quantum fluctuation squeezing, accurately modeling collapse behavior and particle emission in BEC experiments.

Findings

Quantitative fit to collapse time scaling

Accurate modeling of emitted particle quantities

Explanation of quantum fluctuation amplification

Abstract

Phenomena associated with the controlled collapse of a Bose-Einstein condensate described in the experiment of Donley et al (E. Donley et. al., Nature 412, 295 (2001); N. Claussen, Ph. D. Thesis, U. of Colorado (2003)) are explained here as a consequence of the squeezing and amplification of quantum fluctuations above the condensate by the condensate dynamics. In analyzing the changing amplitude and particle contents of these excitations, our simple physical picture provides excellent quantitative fits with experimental data on the scaling behavior of the collapse time and the amount of particles emitted in the jets.