Ballistic expansion of a dipolar condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dipole-dipole interactions influence the free expansion of a Bose condensate, revealing that these effects are significant and independent of atom number in the Thomas-Fermi limit.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical calculation of dipolar force effects on condensate expansion, highlighting their independence from atom number in the Thomas-Fermi regime.

Findings

Dipolar interactions modify condensate expansion dynamics.

Corrections are independent of atom number in the Thomas-Fermi limit.

Theoretical framework for dipolar effects in Bose condensates.

Abstract

We have studied the free expansion of a Bose condensate in which both the usual s-wave contact interaction and the dipole-dipole interaction contribute considerably to the total interaction energy. We calculate corrections due to dipolar forces to the expansion of such a condensate after release from a trap. In the Thomas-Fermi limit, we find that the modifications are to lowest order independent from the total number of atoms.