title: Collapse of the metastable state in an attractive Bose-Einstein condensate.
abstract: The characteristic features of the collapse of the ground state in trapped one-component attractive Bose-Einstein condensates are studied by applying the catastrophe theory. From numerically obtained stable and unstable solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we derive the catastrophe function defining the stability of the stationary points on the Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional. The bifurcation diagram and the universal scaling laws stemming from the catastrophe function show quantitative agreement with the numerical results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and School of Molecular Science (BK 21), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1, Gusongdong, Yusongku, Taejon, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Gil
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yoon-Hyuck Sean
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Eok Kyun
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Lee