Condensation temperature of strongly interacting 39K condensates in the mean-field and semi-classical approximations

We consider the effect of inter-atom interactions on the condensation temperature Tc of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. We find an analytic expression of the shift in Tc induced by interactions with respect the ideal non-interacting case, in the mean-field and semi-classical approximations. Such a shift is expressed in terms of the ratio a/lambda Tc between the s-wave scattering length a and the thermal wavelength lambda Tc. This result is used to discuss the tension between mean-field predictions and observations in strongly interacting 39K condensates. It is shown that such a tension is solved taking into account the details of the Feshbach resonance used to tune a in the experiments.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This article discusses the effect of inter-atom interactions on the condensation temperature of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate and presents an analytic expression for this effect. By studying strongly interacting 39K condensates, it is shown that the tension between mean-field predictions and observations can be resolved by considering the details of the Feshbach resonance used to tune the interactions.