A systematic perturbative expansion of the solution of the time-independent Gross-Pitaevskii equation

Abstract

In this article a perturbative solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii(GP) equation in the $D$-dimensional space $R^D$ with a general external potential is studied. The solution describes the condensate wave-function of a gas containing $N$ Bose particles. A criteria for the validity of the perturbative solution is developed. Furthermore expressions for the particle density, the chemical potential, the internal energy and the mean-square radius of the condensate are derived corrected to first order in the coupling constant. The scheme is then applied to obtain the solution of the GP equation in $D=1,2,3$ for external harmonic potentials. It is shown, in each case, that if $N$ exceeds a certain value the solution breaks down.