A universal time-of-arrival signature of Bose--Einstein condensation
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Abstract
We show that Bose--Einstein condensation produces a cusp in the time-of-arrival (TOA) statistics of a harmonically trapped gas released into free fall. In the semiclassical long time-of-flight regime, with $ε=σ_V/\sqrt{2gH}\ll1$, both the mean and standard deviation of the arrival time distribution, which are governed by the longitudinal velocity variance, remain continuous, but acquire a cusp whose one-sided slope ratio is universal within the ideal-gas far-field limit, $\mathcal{R}_\infty=2.5556\ldots$, and equals the trapped-gas specific-heat ratio $C(Tc^-)/C(Tc^+)$. Finite atom number rounds the cusp and weak interactions perturb it only weakly, leaving a measurable time-domain signature of condensation.