Mixed-isotope Bose-Einstein condensates in rubidium

Abstract

We consider the ground state properties of mixed Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb and 85Rb atoms in the isotropic pancake trap, for both signs of the interspecies scattering length. In the case of repulsive interspecies interaction, there are the axially-symmetric and symmetry-breaking ground states. The threshold for the symmetry breaking transition, which is related to appearance of a zero dipole-mode, is found numerically. For attractive interspecies interactions, the two condensates assume symmetric ground states for the numbers of atoms up to the collapse instability of the mixture.