Momentum spectroscopy of 1D phase fluctuations in Bose-Einstein condensates

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Jul 4;91(1):010405. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.010405. Epub 2003 Jul 3.

Abstract

We measure the axial momentum distribution of Bose-Einstein condensates with an aspect ratio of 152 using Bragg spectroscopy. We observe the Lorentzian momentum distribution characteristic of one-dimensional phase fluctuations. The temperature dependence of the width of this distribution provides a quantitative test of quasicondensate theory. In addition, we observe a condensate length consistent with the suppression of density fluctuations, even when phase fluctuations are large.