Liquid-Gas phase transition in Bose-Einstein Condensates

TL;DR

This paper investigates how repulsive three-body interactions influence Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing a first-order liquid-gas phase transition up to a critical interaction strength through numerical and variational methods.

Contribution

It introduces the effect of three-body forces on BECs and demonstrates a phase transition not previously characterized in this context.

Findings

First-order liquid-gas phase transition observed

Transition persists up to a critical three-body interaction strength

Numerical and variational approaches yield consistent results

Abstract

We study the effects of a repulsive three-body interaction on a system of trapped ultra-cold atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensed state. The corresponding $s-$wave non-linear Schr\"{o}dinger equation is solved numerically and also by a variational approach. A first-order liquid-gas phase transition is observed for the condensed state up to a critical strength of the effective three-body force.