Criticality in Trapped Atomic Systems

Understand

We discuss generic limits posed by the trap in atomic systems on the accurate determination of critical parameters for second-order phase transitions, from which we deduce optimal protocols to extract them.

• We show that under current experimental conditions the in-situ density profiles are barely suitable for an accurate study of critical points in the strongly correlated regime.
• Contrary to recent claims, the proper analysis of time-of-fight images yields critical parameters accurately.