Bose-Novae as Squeezing of the Vacuum by Condensate Dynamics

We propose an explanation of the phenomena of Bose Novae, the controlled collapse of a Bose-Einstein condensate described in the experiment of Donley et al [1], as a consequence of the squeezing and amplification of the quantum fluctuations above the condensate by the condensate dynamics. In analyzing the changing amplitude and particle contents of these excitations, our simple physical picture provides excellent quantitative fits with experimental data on the scaling behavior of the collapse time and the amount of particles emitted in the jets. Bose Novae are observed when a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) [2] in a cold (3nK) gas of Rubidium atoms is rendered unstable by a sudden inversion of the sign of the interaction between atoms. After a waiting time tcollapse, the condensate implodes, and a fraction of the condensate atoms are seen to oscillate within the magnetic trap which contains the gas (see below and [1]). These atoms are said to belong to a “burst”. In the experiments described by Donley et al., the interaction is again suddenly turned off after a time τevolve. For a certain range of values of τevolve, new emissions of atoms from the condensate are observed, the so-called “jets”. Jets are distinct from bursts: they are colder, weaker, and have a characteristic disk-like shape. To date, the most comprehensive theoretical approach to Bose Novae is based on the Gross-Pitaevsky equation with explicitly time-dependent nonlinear terms. Loss mechanisms are incorporated by adding imaginary terms to the Hamiltonian [3]. This approach is analyzed in ref. [4]. There is some experimental evidence that atom recombination into molecules cannot fully explain the observed behavior [5]. We claim, in contrast to the emphasis placed on the dynamics of the condensate alone or the kinet-