INTERFERENCE OF BOSE CONDENSATES - TESTING THE PARADIGM OF BROKEN GAUGE-SYMMETRY

We studied theoretically the macroscopic interference of two independe nt Bose condensates released from a double potential trap. The observa tion of fringes could serve as a test for the paradigm of broken gauge symmetry. By numerical solution of the non-linear Schrodinger equatio n in three dimensions, the consecutive stages of expansion, overlap an d interference were investigated in order to facilitate the design of future experiments. It turns out that the period of the interference f ringes grows linearly in time with a velocity inversely proportional t o the initial distance of the two condensates. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scien ce S.A.