Dynamical response of Bose-Einstein condensates to oscillating gravitational fields

R�tsel, Dennis; Howl, Richard; Lindkvist, Joel; Fuentes, Ivette

Abstract

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. A description of the dynamical response of uniformly trapped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) to oscillating external gravitational fields is developed, with the inclusion of damping. Two different effects that can lead to the creation of phonons in the BEC are identified; direct driving and parametric driving. Additionally, the oscillating gravitational field couples phonon modes, which can lead to the transition of excitations between modes. The special case of the gravitational field of a small, oscillating sphere located closely to the BEC is considered. It is shown that measurement of the effects may be possible for oscillating source masses down to the milligram scale, with a signal to noise ratio of the order of 10. To this end, noise terms and variations of experimental parameters are discussed and generic experimental parameters are given for specific atom species. The results of this article suggest the utility of BECs as sensors for the gravitational field of very small oscillating objects which may help pave the way towards gravity experiments with masses in the quantum regime.

Citation

Rätsel, D., Howl, R., Lindkvist, J., & Fuentes, I. (2018). Dynamical response of Bose-Einstein condensates to oscillating gravitational fields. New Journal of Physics, 20(7), 073044. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aad272

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 10, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jul 24, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 24, 2018
• Deposit Date: Dec 6, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 7, 2018
• Journal: New Journal of Physics
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 7
• Article Number: 073044
• Pages: 073044
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aad272
• Keywords: Bose-Einstein condensates, oscillating gravitational fields, phonons, parametric driving, gravity, sensing
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1371020
• Publisher URL: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/aad272/meta
• Additional Information: Journal title: New Journal of Physics; Article type: paper; Article title: Dynamical response of Bose–Einstein condensates to oscillating gravitational fields; Copyright information: © 2018 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft; License information: cc-by Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.; Date received: 2018-05-06; Date accepted: 2018-07-10; Online publication date: 2018-07-24