Abstract

Since the recent experimental observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute atomic gases, much interest has been raised about the coherence properties of the condensates. Considerable attention has been devoted to the matter of the relative phase between two condensates: how this phase manifests itself in an interference experiment [1], how it can be established by measurement, and how it evolves in presence of atomic interactions [2]. Recently it was predicted that the relative phase between two condensates should display collapses and revivals in time due to atomic interactions. For condensates with a relatively small number of atoms, of the order of some hundreds, the revivals of the phase can occur on the 10⁻¹ s time scale and might in principle be observed.

© 1998 IEEE