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Feedback control of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate using phase-contrast imaging

The linewidth of an atom laser is limited by density fluctuations in the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) from which the atom laser beam is outcoupled. In this paper we show that a stable spatial mode for an interacting BEC can be generated using a realistic control scheme that includes the effects of the measurement backaction. This model extends the feedback theory, based on a phase-contrast imaging setup, presented in \cite{Szigeti:2009}. In particular, it is applicable to a BEC with large interatomic interactions and solves the problem of inadequacy of the mean-field (coherent state) approximation by utilising a fixed number state approximation. Our numerical analysis shows the control to be more effective for a condensate with a large nonlinearity.