Abstract

Since the experimental realization of BoseEinstein condensation in the magnetically trapped quantum atomic gases,¹ there have now been an enormous quantity of theory devoted to the properties of the trapped BoseEinstein condensates (BEC). Motivated by the existing experiments, the bulk of the theoretical work has assumed a harmonic trap. Although recently a few papers have considered the consequences of exposing a BEC to a periodic optical potential,^2-4 BEC confined in an optical lattice is still a new topic in this area.

© 1999 Optical Society of America