Elastic scattering losses in the four-wave mixing of Bose Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper presents a classical stochastic field method to model quantum fluctuations in Bose-Einstein condensates, successfully reproducing experimental four-wave mixing data and elucidating elastic scattering losses.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel stochastic approach that captures quantum fluctuations in atom optics processes, providing accurate predictions for four-wave mixing in Bose-Einstein condensates.

Findings

Method accurately reproduces experimental data

Quantifies elastic scattering losses

Provides insights into quantum fluctuation effects

Abstract

We introduce a classical stochastic field method that accounts for the quantum fluctuations responsible for spontaneous initiation of various atom optics processes. We assume a delta-correlated Gaussian noise in all initially empty modes of atomic field. Its strength is determined by comparison with the analytical results for two colliding condensates in the low loss limit. Our method is applied to the atomic four wave mixing experiment performed at MIT [Vogels {\it et. al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 89}, 020401, (2002)], for the first time reproducing experimental data.