Stability in Bose-Einstein Condensates

Abstract

In this work the validity of an analytic approximation expression [1] for the critical number of atoms that a Bose-Einstein Condensate can hold before collapsing when the interaction between them is attractive is checked. In order to do this the system is treated in a more precise way by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. One finds that the variational approach underestimates the number of atoms that can fit in a Bose-Einstein Condensate before it collapses.