Microgravity experiments with radiofrequency-dressed Bose-Einstein condensates aboard NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory

Microgravity conditions present opportunities for studying ultracold atomic systems free of gravitational perturbation. One such opportunity is the study of shell- or bubble-like Bose-Einstein condensates, which have not been observed terrestrially due to gravitational effects dominating condensate mean-field energy in typical experimental conditions. We present recent measurements using NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory facility aboard the International Space Station focusing on both preliminary characterization of the CAL atom-chip magnetic trap and on the physics of radiofrequency (rf) dressed magnetic traps in a microgravity environment, and discuss model predictions of bubble-BEC properties in such an environment.