Can three-body recombination purify a quantum gas?

ORAL

Abstract

While three-body recombination in quantum gases is traditionally associated with heating, it was recently observed that it can also cool some specific systems. We show that three-body loss in a partially condensed 3D homogeneous Bose gas could even lead to purification of the sample, meaning the reduction of the entropy per particle and the increase of the condensed fraction. This phenomenon is a consequence of two quantum-statistical effects - the saturation of the thermal component in a partially condensed gas and the quantum statistics of three-body collisions. We discuss the theoretical origin of this effect and the feasibility of its experimental realisation.

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Authors

  • Lena Dogra

    • University of Cambridge

  • Jake Glidden

    • University of Cambridge

  • Christoph Eigen

    • University of Cambridge

  • Timon Hilker

    • University of Cambridge

  • Eric A. Cornell

    • JILA, NIST, and University of Colorado, Boulder
    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado, Boulder
    • JILA, NIST and University of Colorado, and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Robert Smith

    • University of Oxford

  • Zoran Hadzibabic

    • University of Cambridge