Density profile of a Bose-Einstein condensate inside a pancake-shaped trap: Observational consequences of the dimensional cross-over in the scattering properties

Abstract

It is theoretically well known that two-dimensionality of the scattering events in a Bose-Einstein condensate introduces a logarithmic dependence on density in the coupling constant entering a mean-field theory of the equilibrium density profile, which becomes dominant as the s-wave scattering length gets larger than the condensate thickness. We trace the regions of experimentally accessible system parameters for which the cross-over between different dimensionality behaviors in the scattering properties may become observable through in situ imaging of the condensed cloud with varying trap anisotropy and scattering length.