VJ Atomic / Volume 2 / Issue 7 / PROPERTIES OF BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATES AND BOSE S...

Bose-Einstein Condensation in Microgravity

Source: Science 328, 1540 (2010); doi:10.1126/science.1189164

Issue Date: July 2010

ABSTRACT

^* Full Text: Access via Source Journal Abstract

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:

1935-4061 (online)

Publisher:

AAAS

T. van Zoest,^ff1 N. Gaaloul,^ff1 Y. Singh,^ff1 H. Ahlers,^ff1 W. Herr,^ff1 S. T. Seidel,^ff1 W. Ertmer,^ff1 E. Rasel,^ff1 M. Eckart,^ff2 E. Kajari,^ff2 S. Arnold,^ff2 G. Nandi,^ff2 W. P. Schleich,^ff2 R. Walser,^ff3 A. Vogel,^ff4 K. Sengstock,^ff4 K. Bongs,^ff5 W. Lewoczko-Adamczyk,^ff6 M. Schiemangk,^ff6 T. Schuldt,^ff6 A. Peters,^ff6 T. Knemann,^ff7 H. Mntinga,^ff7 C. Lmmerzahl,^ff7 H. Dittus,^ff7 T. Steinmetz,^ff8 T. W. Hnsch,^ff8 and J. Reichel^ff9
^ff1Institut fr Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universitt Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany.
^ff2Institut fr Quantenphysik, Universitt Ulm, Albert Einstein Allee 11, 89081 Ulm, Germany.
^ff3Institut fr Angewandte Physik, Technische Universitt Darmstadt, Hochschulstrasse 4A, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany.
^ff4Institut fr Laser-Physik, Universitt Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany.
^ff5Midlands Ultracold Atom Research Centre, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
^ff6Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
^ff7Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), Universitt Bremen, Am Fallturm, 28359 Bremen, Germany.
^ff8Max-Planck-Institut fr Quantenoptik and Sektion Physik der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt, Schellingstrasse 4, 80799 Mnchen, Germany.
^ff9Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel de l'Ecole Normale Suprieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris, France.

AlbertEinstein's insight that it is impossible to distinguish a localexperiment in a freely falling elevator from one in freespace led to the development of the theory of generalrelativity. The wave nature of matter manifests itself in astriking way in Bose-Einstein condensates, where millions of atoms losetheir identity and can be described by a single macroscopicwave function. We combine these two topics and report thepreparation and observation of a Bose-Einstein condensate during free fallin a 146-meter-tall evacuated drop tower. During the expansion over1 second, the atoms form a giant coherent matter wavethat is delocalized on a millimeter scale, which represents apromising source for matter-wave interferometry to test the universality offree fall with quantum matter. ©2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science

(As supplied by publisher.)

History:	Received March 05, 2010; accepted May 10, 2010
Permalink:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1189164

Strongly Correlated Gases of Rydberg-Dressed Atoms: Quantum and Classical Dynamics

Exact results on the two-particle Green's function of a Bose-Einstein condensate

Bose-Einstein Condensation in Microgravity

Source: Science 328, 1540 (2010); doi:10.1126/science.1189164