title: Stability of continuously pumped atom lasers.
abstract: A multimode model of a continuously pumped atom laser is shown to be unstable below a critical value of the scattering length. Above the critical scattering length, the atom laser reaches a steady state, the stability of which increases with pumping. Below this limit the laser does not reach a steady state. This instability results from the competition between gain and loss for the excited states of the lasing mode. It will determine a fundamental limit for the linewidth of an atom laser beam.
authors: Department of Physics and Theoretical Physics, Australian National University, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors: S A
authors: SA
authors: Haine
authors: J J
authors: JJ
authors: Hope
authors: N P
authors: NP
authors: Robins
authors: C M
authors: CM
authors: Savage