Bose-Einstein Condensates in the Large Gas Parameter Regime

Bose-Einstein condensates of 10$^4$ $^{85}$Rb atoms in a cylindrical trap are studied using a recently proposed modified Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The existence of a Feshbach resonance allows for widely tuning the scattering length of the atoms, and values of the peak gas parameter, $x_{pk}$, of the order of 10$^{-2}$ can be attained. We find large differences between the results of the modified Gross-Pitaevskii and of the standard Thomas-Fermi, and Gross-Pitaevskii equations in this region. The column densities at $z=0$ may differ by as much as $\sim 30$ and the half maximum radius by $\sim 20$. The scattering lengths estimated by fitting the half maximum radius within different approaches can differ by $\sim 40$.