Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic gases in a harmonic oscillator confining potential trap

TL;DR

This paper develops a model to predict the Bose-Einstein condensation temperature in atomic gases confined by a harmonic oscillator potential, aligning well with experimental data and analyzing the unique characteristics of such confined systems.

Contribution

It provides an analytical and numerical study of Bose-Einstein condensation in harmonic traps, highlighting differences from unconfined systems and offering predictions for alkali metal gases.

Findings

Model predicts condensation temperature accurately.

Confined systems lack a well-defined critical temperature.

Good agreement with recent experiments.

Abstract

We present a model which predicts the temperature of Bose-Einstein condensation in atomic alkali gases and find excellent agreement with recent experimental observations. A system of bosons confined by a harmonic oscillator potential is not characterized by a critical temperature in the same way as an identical system which is not confined. We discuss the problem of Bose-Einstein condensation in an isotropic harmonic oscillator potential analytically and numerically for a range of parameters of relevance to the study of low temperature gases of alkali metals.