Molecular Signatures in Hybrid Atomic/Molecular Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how Feshbach resonance creates a molecular condensate in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, analyzing its effects on equilibrium properties and collective excitations using a variational approach.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical analysis of signatures of molecular condensates in hybrid atomic/molecular BECs, highlighting observable changes in shape and unique excitation modes.

Findings

Significant shape changes due to molecular presence

Emergence of unique collective excitation modes

Observable frequency signatures of the molecular condensate

Abstract

As it was proposed and recently verified experimentally, the mechanism of Feshbach resonance in a condensate can create a second condensate component of molecules that coexists with the atomic condensate. In this work we investigate signatures of the presence of the molecular condensate through the equilibrium properties and collective excitations of the hybrid system of atoms and molecules, subjected to a trap, employing a time-dependent variational ansatz. We show that the shape of the condensate changes significantly by the presence of the molecules and that modes unique to this hybrid system appear at observable frequencies.