Suppression of elastic scattering loss for slowly colliding Bose-Einstein condensates - art. no. 023607

Superfluid suppression of the elastic scattering loss in atomic Bose conden sed systems can be significant when the ratio of the relative velocity of t he wave packets to the critical velocity is similar to1. We show how to inc orporate the effect of such losses and their suppression into the time-depe ndent dynamics of two colliding condensate wave packets. We illustrate the magnitude of the effect through three-dimensional simulations of the collis ion dynamics of an \F=2, M-F=2] with an \F=2, M-F=1] Rb-87 condensate in a harmonic trap, as studied in a recent experiment [Maddaloni et al., Phys. R ev. Lett. 85, 2413 (2000)]. These calculations show that the effect of elas tic scattering and its suppression should be seen in the oscillatory center -of-mass amplitude of the M-F=1 wave packet for suitable experimental condi tions.