Stability of Magnetically Trapped Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper examines the stability of magnetically trapped Bose-Einstein condensates, highlighting the conditions under which they remain stable or decay due to magnetic field gradients, and assesses the validity of the adiabatic approximation.

Contribution

It investigates the validity of the adiabatic approximation in quantum condensates and identifies conditions affecting their stability in magnetic traps.

Findings

Condensates are generally stable near the trap center.

Extremely large magnetic field gradients can cause condensate decay.

The adiabatic approximation holds under typical trapping conditions.

Abstract

According to the adiabatic approximation atoms moving in a magnetic trap keep their magnetic states. We investigate the validity of this approximation for quantum condensates, where a change of field's direction generates effective interactions between hyperfine angular momentum states. Condensates in general traps are found to be stable because they are confined in the vicinity of the trap center. A decay of a condensate is observable in a trap with extremely large field gradient.