Direct Simulation of Evaporative Cooling

Abstract

We have simulated the evaporative cooling of trapped atoms using a very efficient method originally introduced for the study of molecular gas dynamics. This straightforward and intuitive method allows the dynamics of the evaporative cooling process to be studied and requires fewer simplifications and assumptions than other methods. In particular, the method is not restricted to distributions close to equilibrium and therefore it can model accurately rapid forced evaporative cooling, which is an important technique for cooling trapped atoms. We present the results of simulations for forced evaporative cooling in one, two and three dimensions.