ACHIEVING STEADY-STATE BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION

We investigate the possibility of obtaining Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in a steady state by continuously loading atoms into a magnetic trap while keeping the frequency of the radio frequency field fixed. A steady state is obtained when the gain of atoms due to loading is ba lanced with the three dominant loss mechanisms due to elastic collisio ns with hot atoms from the background gas, inelastic three-body collis ions, and evaporation. We describe our model of this system and presen t results of calculations of the peak phase-space density rho(0) in or der to investigate the conditions under which one can reach the regime rho(0) greater than or equal to 2.612 and attain BEC in steady state.