Observation of reduced three-body recombination in a correlated 1D degenerate Bose gas

We investigate the correlation properties of a one-dimensional interacting Bose gas by loading a magnetically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) into a deep two-dimensional optical lattice.
arXiv:0312003 (2003) / Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 190401 (2004)

We measure the three-body recombination rate for both the BEC in the magnetic trap and the BEC loaded into the optical lattice.

The recombination rate coefficient is a factor of 7 smaller in the lattice, which we interpret as a reduction in the local three-body correlation function in the 1D case.

This is a signature of correlation intermediate between that of the uncorrelated, phase coherent, 1D, mean-field regime and the strongly correlated Tonks-Girardeau regime.

Number as a function of time in the tight magnetic trap (no 2D lattice). The solid line is a fit to the decay, and the dashed line is an extrapolation of the asymptotic 1-body loss.