Theory of Bose-Einstein condensation for trapped atoms

Abstract

We outline the general features of the conventional mean-field theory for the description of Bose-Einstein condensates at near zero temperatures. This approach, based on a phenomenological model, appears to give excellent agreement with experimental data. We argue, however, that such an approach is not rigorous and cannot contain the full effect of collisional dynamics due to the presence of the mean-field. We thus discuss an alternative microscopic approach and explain, within our new formalism, the physical origin of these effects. Furthermore, we discuss the potential formulation of a consistent finite-temperature mean-field theory, which we claim necessiates an analysis beyond the conventional treatment.

12 pages. To appear in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 355 (1997)

References in corpus (1)

• Microscopic Treatment of Binary Interactions in the Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Partially Bose-condensed Trapped Gases

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Gapless finite-$T$ theory of collective modes of a trapped gas
• A numerical approach to the ground and excited states of a Bose-Einstein condensed gas confined in a completely anisotropic trap
• On the anomalous density for Bose gases at finite temperature
• Variational self-consistent theory for trapped Bose gases at finite temperature
• Beyond Gross-Pitaevskii Mean Field Theory