Spinor condensate of 87Rb as a dipolar gas

Tomasz Świsłocki, Mirosław Brewczyk, Mariusz Gajda, Kazimierz Rzążewski

We consider a spinor condensate of 87Rb atoms in F=1 hyperfine state confined in an optical dipole trap. Putting initially all atoms in m_F=0 component we find that the system evolves towards a state of thermal equilibrium with kinetic energy equally distributed among all magnetic components. We show that this process is dominated by the dipolar interaction of magnetic spins rather than spin mixing contact potential. Our results show that because of a dynamical separation of magnetic components the spin mixing dynamics in 87Rb condensate is governed by dipolar interaction which plays no role in a single component rubidium system in a magnetic trap.

arxiv.org 0901.1763