Two-fluid dynamics for a Bose-Einstein condensate out of local equilibrium with the non-condensate

Abstract

We extend our recent work on the two-fluid hydrodynamics of a Bose-condensed gas by including collisions involving both condensate and non-condensate atoms. These collisions are essential for establishing a state of local thermodynamic equilibrium between the condensate and non-condensate. Our theory is more general than the usual Landau two-fluid theory, to which it reduces in the appropriate limit, in that it allows one to describe situations in which a state of complete local equilibrium between the two components has not been reached. The exchange of atoms between the condensate and non-condensate is associated with a new relaxational mode of the gas.