Second sound in a laser cooled gas

We show that the second sound can exist in the ultra-cold gas of atoms confined and cooled in a magneto-optical trap. Our approach is based on a two-fluids model, similar to that used for superfluidity. Each of the fluids (the atomic gas and the phonon gas) is described by similar kinetic and fluid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics letters. A 2013-10, Vol.377 (31-33), p.1961-1965
Main Author: Mendonca, J T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational fluid dynamics
Dispersions
Fluid flow
Fluids
Joining
Mathematical models
Solid state physics
Sound
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Summary:We show that the second sound can exist in the ultra-cold gas of atoms confined and cooled in a magneto-optical trap. Our approach is based on a two-fluids model, similar to that used for superfluidity. Each of the fluids (the atomic gas and the phonon gas) is described by similar kinetic and fluid equation, which are coupled. The second sound modes are elementary excitations of these two coupled fluids. The ultra-cold gas could be used as an experimental test bed for detailed studies of the dispersion properties of the first and second sound. •We model the second sound in a gas of ultra-cold atoms.•We use a two fluids model, similar to that used for superfluidity.•The atomic gas and the phonon gas are both described by kinetic and fluid equations.•Second sound in the atomic gas is similar to that of a condensate.•The ultra-cold gas produced by laser cooling is proposed as a test bed for second sound dispersion.
ISSN:0375-9601
1873-2429
DOI:10.1016/j.physleta.2013.05.035