Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 217, 63-68 (2013)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2013-01754-x

Regular Article

Dynamical properties of a condensate in a moving random potential

¹ Université de Nice – Sophia Antipolis, Institut non Linéaire de Nice, CNRS, 1361 route des Lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France
² Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
³ Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires – CONICET, Argentina

^a e-mail: ardavan.alamir@inln.cnrs.fr

Received: 7 September 2012
Revised: 15 January 2013
Published online: 11 March 2013

Abstract

We study the dynamics of an inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a one-dimensional harmonic trap and a moving random potential of finite extent. Above the critical velocity, a part of a condensate glues to the moving random potential with a consequent displacement of the condensate center-of-mass along the harmonic trap. We show that the center-of-mass turning point provides a direct measure of the average drag force acting on the condensate.