ROLE OF ATTRACTIVE INTERACTIONS ON BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION

The properties and stability of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate are strongly influenced by attractive interactions between the particles. We describe the spatial distribution, stability, and collisional loss rates for a weakly interacting gas in the mean-field limit. We show h ow the condensate contracts and becomes unstable as the number of cond ensate atoms increases. We further show how the number of atoms is lim ited by the collisional loss rates associated with the contraction of the condensate; this loss is in addition to the particle ejection deca y indentified by Kagan et al.