Driven collective instabilities in magneto-optical traps: a fluid-dynamical approach

Abstract

We present a theoretical model to describe an instability mechanism in ultra-cold gases, where long-range interactions are taken into account. Focusing on the nonlinear coupling between the collective (plasma-like) and the center-of-mass modes, we show that the resulting dynamics is governed by a parametric equation of the generalized Mathieu type and compute the corresponding stability chart. We apply our model to typical ranges of magneto-optical traps (MOT) parameters and find a good agreement with previous experimental observations.

4 pages, 3 figures. Some minor changes in the published version.

References in corpus (2)

• Collective oscillations in ultracold atomic gases
• Self-driven nonlinear dynamics in magneto-optical traps

Cited by in corpus (8)

• A phonon laser in ultra-cold matter
• Polytropic equilibrium and normal modes in cold atomic traps
• Classical Rotons in Cold Atomic Traps
• Phase diagram of spatiotemporal instabilities in a large magneto-optical trap
• Three-dimensional simulations of spatiotemporal instabilities in a magneto-optical trap
• Electron trapping in freely expanding ultracold neutral plasmas
• Towards a measurement of the Debye length in very large Magneto-Optical traps
• Laser scattering by density fluctuations of ultra-cold atoms in a magneto-optical trap