Liquid-gas phase transition in Bose-Einstein condensates with time evolution - art. no. 051602

We study the effects of a repulsive three-body interaction on a system of t rapped ultracold atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensed state. The stationary s olutions of the corresponding s-wave nonlinear Schrodinger equation suggest a scenario of first-order liquid-gas phase transition in the condensed sta te up to a critical strength of the effective three-body force. The time ev olution of the condensate with feeding process and three-body recombination losses has a different characteristic pattern. Also, the decay time of the dense (liquid) phase is longer than expected due to strong oscillations of the mean-squared radius.