W. G. Pritchard Lab Seminar: 3:30-4:30 PM, 116 McAllister Building

	                 **Monday March 24, 2003**
	
Bose-Einstein condensates in periodic potentials 

Bernard Deconinck

Department of Mathematics
Colorado State University

Abstract:

Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) were predicted in 1924 by Einstein as a 
direct consequence of Boson statistics.  Experimental verification had to 
wait until 1997 (CU, MIT, Rice).  The mean-field description of the 
dynamics of a BEC is given by the Nonlinear Schrodinger equation with an 
external potential.  In this talk, I will discuss the influence of nonlocal 
perturbations to the mean-field model for the case of a 1-dimensional 
optical potential, as generated by a standing light wave.  Specifically I 
will show that the stability properties of solutions to the resulting 
nonlocal equation are not asymptotically equivalent to those of the 
corresponding solutions of the local equation.