Landau damping and the echo effect in a confined Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

Low energy collective mode of a confined Bose-Einstein condensate should demonstrate the echo effect in the regime of Landau damping. This echo is a signature of reversible nature of Landau damping. General expression for the echo profile is derived in the limit of small amplitudes of the external pulses. Several universal features of the echo are found. The existence of echo in other cases of reversible damping -- Fano effect and Caldeira-Leggett model -- is emphasized. It is suggested to test reversible nature of the damping in the atomic traps by conducting the echo experiment.