Bose-Einstein condensate in an elliptical waveguide

Abstract

We investigate the effects of spatial curvature for an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate confined in an elliptical waveguide. The system is well described by an effective 1D Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a quantum-curvature potential, which has the shape of a double-well but crucially depends on the eccentricity of the ellipse. The ground state of the system displays a quantum phase transition from a two-peak configuration to a one-peak configuration at a critical attractive interaction strength. In correspondence of this phase transition the superfluid fraction strongly reduces and goes to zero for a sufficiently attractive Bose-Bose interaction.