title: Relaxation of an unstable state in parametrically excited cold atoms.
abstract: We investigate the scaling behavior of the relaxation process for an unstable state near a subcritical Hopf bifurcation point. When the parametric modulation is applied to a magneto-optical trap, the atomic cloud becomes unstable and decays to the dynamic bistable states. Near the subcritical Hopf bifurcation point, we experimentally show that the relaxation process exhibits the scaling behavior; the relaxation time shows a scaling exponent of -1.002 (±0.024). We also present the passage time distribution for the statistical interpretation of the escape process associated with the relaxation of the unstable state. We compare the experimental results to the numerical and analytic results, demonstrating the good agreement between them.
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea.
authors: Geol
authors: G
authors: Moon
authors: Yonghee
authors: Y
authors: Kim
authors: Myoung-Sun
authors: MS
authors: Heo
authors: Jina
authors: J
authors: Park
authors: Dahyun
authors: D
authors: Yum
authors: Wanhee
authors: W
authors: Lee
authors: Heung-Ryoul
authors: HR
authors: Noh
authors: Wonho
authors: W
authors: Jhe