Abstract
We investigated the ground-state wave function and the free expansion of a trapped dipolar condensate. We find that dipolar interaction may induce both biconcave and dumbbell density profiles in the pancake- and cigar-shaped traps, respectively. In the parameter plane of the interaction strengths, the oscillating density profile in a harmonically trapped dipolar condensate occurs only when the interaction parameters fall into certain isolated areas. The relation between the positions of these areas and the trap geometry is explored. When a box potential is used to confine the condensate, spatial density oscillation becomes a generic feature. By studying the free expansion of the condensate with an oscillating density profile, we show that the spatial density oscillation is detectable from the time-of-flight image.
2 More- Received 5 May 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.023622
©2010 American Physical Society