Abstract

Since its first experimental realisation in 1995, Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) have been produced in a multitude of laboratories worldwide, providing fundamental insights into the physics of ultra-cold quantum matter. In terrestrial laboratories local gravitational acceleration can significantly affect and disturb the evolution of such BECs. As an illustrative example, the average energy per atom at the currently achieved lowest temperature of 500 pK corresponds to only a few mn of altitude difference in the gravitational potential, much smaller than the typical size of a condensate. Weightlessness thus promises to substantially extend the science of quantum gases towards nowadays inaccessible regimes of low temperatures, macroscopic dimensions of coherent matter-waves and longer unperturbed evolution.

© 2007 IEEE