Stabilizing an Attractive Bose-Einstein Condensate by Driving a Surface Collective Mode

Abstract

Bose-Einstein condensates of $^7$Li have been limited in number due to attractive interatomic interactions. Beyond this number, the condensate undergoes collective collapse. We study theoretically the effect of driving low-lying collective modes of the condensate by a weak asymmetric sinusoidally time-dependent field. We find that driving the radial breathing mode further destabilizes the condensate, while excitation of the quadrupolar surface mode causes the condensate to become more stable by imparting quasi-angular momentum to it. We show that a significantly larger number of atoms may occupy the condensate, which can then be sustained almost indefinitely. All effects are predicted to be clearly visible in experiments and efforts are under way for their experimental realization.