Disruption of reflecting Bose-Einstein condensates due to inter-atomic interactions and quantum noise

TL;DR

This paper uses 3D simulations to study how inter-atomic interactions and quantum noise affect the reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates from potential barriers, revealing disruption of structure, vortex formation, and scattering halos.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the effects of interactions and quantum noise on condensate reflection, including vortex generation and scattering halos, with comparison to experiments.

Findings

Interactions disrupt condensate structure at low velocities

Quantum noise leads to scattering halos at high velocities

Vortices form due to inter-atomic interactions

Abstract

We perform fully three-dimensional simulations, using the truncated Wigner method, to investigate the reflection of Bose-Einstein condensates from abrupt potential barriers. We show that the inter-atomic interactions can disrupt the internal structure of a cigar-shaped cloud with a high atom density at low approach velocities, damping the center-of-mass motion and generating vortices. Furthermore, by incorporating quantum noise we show that scattering halos form at high approach velocities, causing an associated condensate depletion. We compare our results to recent experimental observations.