Abstract
The point of instability of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) due to attractive interactions was studied. Stable BECs were created and then caused to collapse by slowly changing the atom-atom interaction from repulsive to attractive using a Feshbach resonance. At a critical value, an abrupt transition was observed in which atoms were ejected from the condensate. By measuring the onset of this transition as a function of number and attractive interaction strength, we determined the stability condition to be , slightly lower than the predicted value of 0.574.
- Received 22 January 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4211
©2001 American Physical Society