Critical effects in population dynamics of trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

The population dynamics of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate, subject to the action of an external field, is studied. This field produces a spatio-temporal modulation of the trapping potential with the frequency close to the transition frequency between the ground state and a higher energy level. For the evolution equations of fractional populations, a critical line is found. It is demonstrated that there exists a direct analogy between dynamical instability at this line and critical phenomena at a critical line of an averaged system. The related critical indices are calculated. The spatio-temporal evolution of atomic density is analyzed.