Abstract
The experimental demonstration of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in magnetically trapped atomic gases1-3 has focused interest on the prospects for constructing a source of coherent matter waves, or atom laser. Indeed, a prototype device of this type has been demonstrated,4 and the first-order coherence properties of BEC atom sources have been demonstrated by the observation of interference fringes in collisions of separately prepared BECs.5 There is some controversy over the use of the laser analogy to describe such systems,6 in part because the theory of coherence has not yet been as fully developed for matter-wave as for optical-wave sources. We believe that a first-principles model of matter-wave coherence is needed to provide a framework within which one can give quantitative interpretation to experiments such a those of Burt et al.7 and Ketterle and Miesner,8 which are concerned with third- and second-order coherence functions, respectively.
© 1998 Optical Society of America
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