Why a Condensate Can Be Thought of as Having a Definite Phase.
We present an argument for assigning a definite phase to an assembly of Bose-Einstein Condensed atoms. This relies on the demonstration that a coherent state of the condensed system is a robust state in the presence of interactions between the condensate and its environment.
Department of Physics and Applied Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G4 0NG, UK.
S M
SM
Barnett
Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK.
K
K
Burnett
Physics Department, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
J A
JA
Vaccaro
Bose-Einstein condensate; broken symmetry; coherent state; open quantum system; phase