Overlap of exact and Gross-Pitaevskii wave functions in Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute gases

Abstract

It has been proven theoretically for bosons with two-body repulsive interaction potentials in the dilute limit that the Gross-Pitaevskii equation provides the exact energy and density per particle as does the basic many-particle Schrödinger equation [E. H. Lieb and R. Seiringer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 170409 (2002)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.88.170409]. Here, we investigate the overlap of the Gross-Pitaevskii and exact ground-state wave functions. It is found that this overlap is always smaller than unity and may even vanish despite the fact that both wave functions provide the same energy and density per particle. Consequences are discussed.