Nonexponential motional damping of impurity atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper shows that impurity atoms moving in a Bose-Einstein condensate experience damping that significantly deviates from exponential decay within microsecond timescales, revealing complex dynamical behavior.

Contribution

It provides the first observation of nonexponential damping of impurity atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates at supercritical velocities.

Findings

Damping deviates from exponential law within 10^{-5} seconds.

Impurity atom motion exhibits complex, nonexponential decay patterns.

Results suggest new dynamical regimes in impurity-BEC interactions.

Abstract

We demonstrate that the damping of the motion of an impurity atom injected at a supercritical velocity into a Bose-Einstein condensate can exhibit appreciable deviation from the exponential law on time scales of $10^{-5}$ s.