English

Density Matrix of a Bose--Einstein Condensate: Steady--State versus Mean--Field Approach

Condensed Matter 2007-05-23 v3

Abstract

We compare the equilibrium solution for the condensate obtained in the mean--field approximation to the master equation for sympathetic cooling with the one obtained by Scully for a system in contact with a heat bath with the help of an analogy with the laser. While the mean--field approach yields analytical formulas for the approach towards equilibrium and for the equilibrium solution, it neglects the correlations between occupation numbers of different single--particle states which are approximately kept in Scully's approach. Such neglect is admissible as long as the fraction of Bosons in the condensate does not exceed a few percent or so.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0111413,
  title  = {Density Matrix of a Bose--Einstein Condensate: Steady--State versus Mean--Field Approach},
  author = {S. J. Wang and M. C. Nemes and A. N. Salgueiro and H. A. Weidenmüller},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0111413},
  year   = {2007}
}