The Moment of Inertia and the Scissors Mode of a Bose-condensed Gas

O. M. Marago', G. Hechenblaikner, E. Hodby, S. A. Hopkins, C. J. Foot

Published 2001-09-11Version 1

We relate the frequency of the scissors mode to the moment of inertia of a trapped Bose gas at finite temperature in a semi-classical approximation. We apply these theoretical results to the data obtained in our previous study of the properties of the scissors mode of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}$Rb atoms as a function of the temperature. The frequency shifts that we measured show quenching of the moment of inertia of the Bose gas at temperatures below the transition temperature - the system has a lower moment of inertia that of a rigid body with the same mass distribution, because of superfluidity.