Biomedical subjects

J Dalibard

Publications and source records attributed to J Dalibard.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2002

Dynamics of a single vortex line in a Bose-Einstein condensate.

We study experimentally the line of a single quantized vortex in a rotating prolate Bose-Einstein condensate confined by a harmonic potential. In agreement with predictions, we find that the vortex line is in most cases curved at the ends. We monitor the vortex line leaving the condensate. Its length is measured as a function of time and temperature. For a low temperature, the survival time can be as large as 10 sec. The length of the line and its deviation from the center of the trap are related to the angular momentum per particle along the condensate axis.

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PubMed2002

Critical rotation of a harmonically trapped Bose gas.

We study experimentally and theoretically a cold trapped Bose gas under critical rotation, i.e., with a rotation frequency close to the frequency of the radial confinement. We identify two regimes: the regime of explosion where the cloud expands to infinity in one direction, and the regime where the condensate spirals out of the trap as a rigid body. The former is realized for a dilute cloud, and the latter for a condensate with the interparticle interaction exceeding a critical value. This constitutes a novel system in which repulsive interactions help in maintaining particles together.

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PubMed2002

Transverse breathing mode of an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate.

We study experimentally the transverse monopole mode of an elongated rubidium condensate. Because of the scaling invariance of the nonlinear Schrödinger (Gross-Pitaevskii) equation, the oscillation is monochromatic and sinusoidal at short times, even under strong excitation. For ultralow temperatures, the quality factor Q = omega(0)/gamma(0) can exceed 2000, where omega(0) and gamma(0) are the mode angular frequency and damping rate. This value is much larger than any previously reported for other eigenmodes of a condensate. We also present the temperature variation of omega(0) and gamma(0).

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PubMed2001

Stationary states of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate: routes to vortex nucleation.

Using a focused laser beam we stir a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a magnetic trap. We observe that the steady states of the condensate correspond to an elliptic cloud, stationary in the rotating frame. These steady states depend nonlinearly on the stirring parameters (amplitude and frequency), and various solutions can be reached experimentally depending on the path followed in this parameter space. These states can be dynamically unstable and we observe that such instabilities lead to vortex nucleation in the condensate.

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PubMed2000

Measurement of the angular momentum of a rotating bose-einstein condensate

We study the quadrupole oscillation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms confined in an axisymmetric magnetic trap, after it has been stirred by an auxiliary laser beam. The stirring may lead to the nucleation of one or more vortices, whose presence is revealed unambiguously by the precession of the axes of the quadrupolar mode. For a stirring frequency Omega below the single vortex nucleation threshold Omega(c), no measurable precession occurs. Just above Omega(c), the angular momentum deduced from the precession is approximately Planck's over 2pi. For stirring frequencies above Omega(c) the angular momentum is a smooth and increasing function of Omega, until an angular frequency is reached at which the vortex lattice disappears.

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PubMed2000

Vortex formation in a stirred bose-einstein condensate

Using a focused laser beam we stir a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb confined in a magnetic trap and observe the formation of a vortex for a stirring frequency exceeding a critical value. At larger rotation frequencies we produce states of the condensate for which up to four vortices are simultaneously present. We have also measured the lifetime of the single vortex state after turning off the stirring laser beam.

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PubMed1996