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Quantum Joule-Thomson Effect in a Saturated Homogeneous Bose Gas

Quantum Gases 2014-01-30 v3 Statistical Mechanics Atomic Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We study the thermodynamics of Bose-Einstein condensation in a weakly interacting quasi-homogeneous atomic gas, prepared in an optical-box trap. We characterise the critical point for condensation and observe saturation of the thermal component in a partially condensed cloud, in agreement with Einstein's textbook picture of a purely statistical phase transition. Finally, we observe the quantum Joule-Thomson effect, namely isoenthalpic cooling of an (essentially) ideal gas. In our experiments this cooling occurs spontaneously, due to energy-independent collisions with the background gas in the vacuum chamber. We extract a Joule-Thomson coefficient μJT>109\mu_{\rm JT} > 10^9 K/bar, about ten orders of magnitude larger than observed in classical gases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.1441,
  title  = {Quantum Joule-Thomson Effect in a Saturated Homogeneous Bose Gas},
  author = {Tobias F. Schmidutz and Igor Gotlibovych and Alexander L. Gaunt and Robert P. Smith and Nir Navon and Zoran Hadzibabic},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.1441},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

4.2 pages, 4 figures, close to the published version