Bogoliubov-Cherenkov radiation in an atom laser

Abstract

We develop a simple yet powerful technique to study Bogoliubov-Cherenkov radiation by producing a pulsed atom laser from a strongly confined Bose-Einstein condensate. Such radiation results when the atom laser pulse falls past a Bose-Einstein condensate at high-hypersonic speeds, modifying the spatial profile to display a characteristic twin jet structure and a complicated interference pattern. The experimental observations are in excellent agreement with mean-field numerical simulations and an analytic theory. Due to the highly hypersonic regime reached in our experiment, this system offers a highly controllable platform for future studies of condensed-matter analogs of quantum electrodynamics at ultrarelativistic speeds.