Abstract

Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of trapped atomic vapor has been realized in several atomic species. The static and dynamical properties of BEC crucially depend on the sign of the interatomic interaction. When the interaction is attractive, BEC in a spatially uniform 3D system is unstable to collapse into a denser phase. In a spatially confined system, however, the zero-point energy serves as a kinetic obstacle against collapse, allowing metastable BEC to be formed if the number of BEC atoms is below a certain critical number. Above the critical number of atoms, BEC collapses. The BEC with attractive interactions, therefore, has been restricted to a small number of atoms (~1000) and the number has not been controllable.

© 2001 Optical Society of America