Quantum kinetic theory. VII. The influence of vapor dynamics on condensategrowth - art. no. 063608

We extend earlier models of the growth of a Bose-Einstein condensate c.w. [ Gardiner ct al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1793 (1997); e-print cond-mat/9801027 ; Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5266 (1998)] to include the full dynamical effects o f the thermal cloud by numerically solving a modified quantum Boltzmann equ ation. We determine the regime in which the assumptions of the simple model of Gardiner ct al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5266 (1998)] are a reasonable app roximation, and compare our results with those that were earlier compared w ith experimental data. We find good agreement with our earlier modeling, ex cept at higher condensate fractions, for which a significant speedup is fou nd. We also investigate the effect of the final temperature on condensate g rowth, and find that this has a surprisingly small effect. The particular d iscrepancy between theory and experiment found in our earlier model remains , since the speedup found in these computations does not occur in the param eter regime specified in the experiment.