Observing properties of an interacting homogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate: Heisenberg-limited momentum spread, interaction energy, and free-expansion dynamics

We study the properties of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate produced in an optical-box potential, using high-resolution Bragg spectroscopy. For a range of box sizes, up to 70 mu m, we directly observe Heisenberg-limited momentum uncertainty of the condensed atoms. We measure the condensate interaction energy with a precision of k(B) x 100 pK and study, both experimentally and numerically, the dynamics of its free expansion upon release from the box potential. All our measurements are in good agreement with theoretical expectations for a perfectly homogeneous condensate of spatial extent equal to the size of the box, which also establishes the uniformity of our optical-box system on a sub-nK energy scale.