title: Elastic scattering loss of atoms from colliding bose-einstein condensate wave packets
abstract: Bragg diffraction of atoms by light waves can create high momentum components in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Collisions between atoms from two distinct momentum wave packets cause elastic scattering that can remove a significant fraction of atoms from the wave packets and cause the formation of a spherical shell of scattered atoms. We develop a slowly varying envelope technique that includes the effects of this loss on the condensate dynamics described by the Gross-Pitaevski equation. Three-dimensional numerical calculations are presented for two experimental situations: passage of a moving daughter condensate through a nonmoving parent condensate, and four-wave mixing of matter waves.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel 84105 and National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8423, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA.
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Band
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trippenbach
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Julienne