Bose–Einstein Condensation of Atoms with Attractive Interaction in a Harmonic Trap

Abstract

It is well known that bosonic particles with attractive interaction in a uniform gas do not form a condensate. Here we investigate a dilute Bose gas and study stationary solutions of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation with attractive interaction. We have also used a higher order stabilising term in the presence of a harmonic confining potential. We show that there are three possible types of stationary solutions corresponding to stable, metastable and unstable phases. These results are discussed in relation to a ⁷Li condensate.