Condensate growth in trapped Bose gates

Abstract

We study the dynamics of condensate fromation in an inhomogeneous trapped Bose gas with a positive interatomic scattering length. We take into account both the nonequilibrium kinetics of the thermal cloud and the Hartree-Fock mean-field efects in the condensed and the noncondensed parts of the gas. Our growth equations are solved numerically by assuming that the thermal component behaves ergodically and that the condensate, threated within the Thomas-Fermi approximation, grows adiabatically. Our simulationsare in good qualitative agreement with experiment, however important discrepancies condencing details of the growth behaviour remain.