Destruction of interference by many-body interactions in cold atomic Bose gases

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2003 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.68.063605· OSTI ID:20640515

Chen, S; Egger, R ^[1]

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1. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet, D-40225 Duesseldorf (Germany)

We study the effects of many-body interactions on the interference in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer for matter waves of ultracold Bose atoms. After switching off an axial trapping potential, the thermal initial wave packet expands, and subsequently interference fringes may be observed in a circular one-dimensional trap. These are computed for axial harmonic or {delta}-function traps, and for interaction strengths from the Thomas-Fermi regime to the Tonks-Girardeau limit. It is shown that many-body correlations in a realistic setup destroy interference to a large degree. Analytical expressions allowing to infer the observability of phase coherence and interference are provided.

• OSTI ID: 20640515
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 68; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
BOSE-EINSTEIN GAS
BOSONS
CORRELATIONS
DELTA FUNCTION
INTERFERENCE
INTERFEROMETRY
MACH-ZEHNDER INTERFEROMETER
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
POTENTIALS
THOMAS-FERMI MODEL
TRAPPING
TRAPS
WAVE PACKETS