Stability and d -wave collapse of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate

Full text: Although the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation is a purely statistical effect that also appears in an ideal gas, the physics of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of dilute gases is considerably enriched by the presence of interactions among the atoms. In usual experiments with BECs, the only relevant interaction is the isotropic and short-range contact interaction, which is described by a single parameter, the scattering length a. In contrast, the dipole-dipole interaction between particles possessing an electric or magnetic dipole moment is of long range character and anisotropic, which gives rise to new phenomena. Most prominently, the stability of a dipolar BEC depends not only on the value of the scattering length a, but also strongly on the geometry of the external trapping potential. Here, we report on the experimental investigation of the stability of a dipolar BEC of 52Cr as a function of the scattering length and the trap aspect ratio. We find good agreement with a universal stability threshold arising from a simple theoretical model. Using a pancake-shaped trap with the dipoles oriented along the short axis of the trap, we are able to tune the scattering length to zero, stabilizing a purely dipolar quantum gas. We also experimentally investigate the collapse dynamics of a dipolar condensate of 52Cr atoms when the s-wave scattering length characterizing the contact interaction is reduced below a critical value. A complex dynamics, involving an anisotropic, d-wave symmetric explosion of the condensate, is observed on time scales significantly shorter than the trap period. At the same time, the condensate atom number decreases abruptly during the collapse. We compare our experimental results with numerical simulations of the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation, including the contact and dipolar interactions as well as three-body losses. The simulations indicate that the collapse is accompanied by the formation of two vortex rings with opposite circulations. (author)