Quantum turbulence in condensate collisions: an application of the classical field method

TL;DR

This paper uses the classical field method to simulate Bose-Einstein condensate collisions, revealing quantum turbulence and correlation properties of scattered atoms, providing a new theoretical framework for high-density condensate interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a non-perturbative classical field simulation including quantum noise for high-density condensate collisions, predicting quantum turbulence and atom correlations.

Findings

Quantum turbulence predicted in scattered atom field

Weak correlation between atom pairs of opposite momentum

First theoretical description of high-density condensate collisions

Abstract

We apply the classical field method to simulate the production of correlated atoms during the collision of two Bose-Einstein condensates. Our non-perturbative method includes the effect of quantum noise, and provides for the first time a theoretical description of collisions of high density condensates with very large out-scattered fractions. Quantum correlation functions for the scattered atoms are calculated from a single simulation, and show that the correlation between pairs of atoms of opposite momentum is rather small. We also predict the existence of quantum turbulence in the field of the scattered atoms--a property which should be straightforwardly measurable.