title: Spontaneous macroscopic spin polarization in independent spinor Bose-Einstein condensates.
abstract: We present experimental evidence for the spontaneous formation of a macroscopic spin polarization in overlapping regions of two independent Bose-Einstein condensates produced in different hyperfine states of 87Rb. The condensates are independent in the sense that we do not explicitly introduce a relative phase between them. A single "spin-tip" pulse maps the transverse spin polarization into longitudinal spin polarization, and the atomic density distributions are measured with a Stern-Gerlach imaging method. The resulting matter-wave interference patterns are anticorrelated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002-5000, USA.
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Wheeler
authors.forename: Kevin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Mertes
authors.forename: Jessie D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Erwin
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Hall