Splitting and merging an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate at finite temperature

We analyze coherence effects during the splitting of a quasi one-dimensional condensate into two spatially separated ones and their subsequent merging into a single condensate. Our analysis takes into account finite-temperature effects, where phase fluctuations play an important role. We show that, at zero temperature, the two split condensates can be merged into a single one with a negligible phase difference. By increasing the temperature to a finite value below the critical point for condensation (Tc), i.e., 0≤T Tc <1, a considerable enhancement of phase and density fluctuations appears during the process of splitting and merging. Our results show that if the process of splitting and merging is sufficiently adiabatic, the whole process is quite insensitive to phase fluctuations and even at high temperatures, a single condensate can be produced. © 2006 The American Physical Society.