Formation of molecules in an expanding Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This paper develops a mean field theory for expanding hybrid atom-molecule Bose-Einstein condensates, analyzing molecule formation and dissociation in ultracold gases, and identifies optimal conditions for molecular BEC formation.

Contribution

It introduces a combined mean field and non-mean-field approach to model molecule formation and dissociation in expanding BECs, providing insights into experimental conditions.

Findings

Optimal conditions for molecular BEC formation identified

Theoretical framework matches experimental observations

Dissociation dynamics analyzed using parametric approximation

Abstract

A mean field theory of expanding hybrid atom-molecule Bose-Einstein condensates is applied to the recent MPI experiments on ${}^{87}$Rb that demonstrated the formation of ultracold molecules due to Feshbach resonance. The subsequent dissociation of the molecules is treated using a non-mean-field parametric approximation. The latter method is also used in determining optimal conditions for the formation of molecular BEC